is probable that what has above been described as representing our Lord may owe to this tradition its position, exactly opposite St. Gregory and the host.

The small altar is decorated with two rows of quatrefoils along the top and bottom, and the middle, where not intercepted by the saint's figure, exhibits a fleur-de-lis and ermine. On the south side of the altar is a tall chalice, with the host bearing the sacred monogram.

A band above, intersected by the cross surmounting the papal tiara, bears the letters S. Gregori'. So there is no room for doubt; and it is strange that so skilled an observer as Dr. O'Donovan, while dissatisfied with Ryland's notice of the inscription, should have followed him in describing the figure as "intended to represent St. Carthagh offering up

the host."

Though the representation of the Pope can best be realized from the illustration, a few explanatory words may be acceptable.

In the "Guide de l'Art Chrétien" (published by Didron, Paris, vol. v.) there is a chapter about St. Gregory as one of the Four Doctors of the Church, and a plate gives a reproduction of the earliest known pictures of him (as also of his father), and a description of his several attributes in art. Curiously, these include a square nimbus-the earliest examplebut no tiara, and the pallium, so that there is divergence by our artist. The latter represents the pope as having a moustache and short beard; but what looks like long hair is probably a fillet from the tiara. The hands are raised, apparently in prayer. The dress seems to terminate in two flounces, fringed with floreated lace. Round the neck, and flowing down the back, but without the usual crosslets, is what may be intended for a pallium. But the most striking accessory is a towering triple tiara, such as St. Gregory is not likely to have worn, if any such there was in the sixth century.

A later representation of Pope Gregory the Great, from a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon MS. in the British Museum, has been recently reproduced in Messrs. Garnett and Gosse's "English Literature," published by Heinemann. It purports to show St. Gregory sending out his missionaries for the conversion of England. He is there represented full-face, under an elaborate canopy, seated on an altar (?), wearing a low cap (very unlike our tiara), with a circular nimbus round his head, and a bird whispering into his right ear. A pallium surrounds his shoulders, and reaches to his feet, having eight crosslets.

It may be well to refer to St. Gregory's patronage of England, and recall the well-known remark attributed to him, "Si non Angli Angeli." These may indicate that the erectors of the Lismore tomb were at least under English influence, like Miler Magrath, who boasts on his monument that, as a successor of St. Patrick, he had long served England's monarchs ("Principibus placui," &c.).

Altogether this fgure of St. Gregory is of supreme interest, as

perhaps the earliest, if not the only, such representation now extant in Ireland, though distant from St. Gregory's time by nearly ten centuries, and from us by almost four.

It will be observed that this tomb was erected in the lifetime of the makers-in fact, was for some time a cenotaph. This was often the case in those days. For instance, the tablet commemorating Archbishop Miler Magrath, in the old Cathedral on the Rock of Cashel, was put up by himself in 1621, though he did not die until late in the following year. This may explain the concluding two verses of his tablet, which have puzzled many readers. They are translated in Harris's Ware's 'Bishops' as :

"Here where I'm placed I'm not, and thus the case is

I'm not in both, yet am in both the places."

A full description of that monument, with a photograph, appeared in the Ulster Journal of Archaology for 1903, and another by Lord W. FitzGerald, also with a photograph, in the "Journal of Memorials of the Dead in Ireland" for 1902, pp. 252-5.

The Lismore tomb was erected for the founders and their posterity, a very usual arrangement in those days, now superseded by "family burial-place." The formula "To and his posterity," was long.

quite common, especially in the West of Ireland.

THE FAMILY COMMEMORATED.

It has been generally assumed that this tomb belonged to the family of Magrath; and, remembering that the notorious pluralist, whose name is commonly written as Miler Magrath, was long occupier of Lismore Castle, and during two distinct periods held the bishopric of Lismore, this was not to be wondered at.

Smith, in his" History of Waterford," prints the bishop's name and the name on this tomb alike as Magrath.

Ryland, in his "Waterford," prints the names commencing the inscription on the tomb in black-letter, with three capitals and the enclitic "c" of Mac as--

Jobes McGrath.

Cooper, in his copy of the inscription, writes it with a capital' 'M,' followed by a small 'c,' as Mcragh; and Dr. O'Donovan invents another variation Macragh,' inserting 'a' between those letters, thus completing the Mac,' but so divorcing the 'c' from the rest of the name, perhaps correctly influenced by his knowledge of Irish. Mr. Harty, Mr. Flood, and the local Archæological Journal read the name as the modern McGrath.

But, as a matter of fact, the name in both places where it is carved on the tomb appears (without any capital) as

mcragb.

Anyone having to insert this name in an index would be puzzled to determine what place to assign it under the letter M.

Mr. Buckley tells me that there is in the ruined chancel of the (Abbeyside) Church of Dungarvan a tomb-slab bearing the name "Donald Macrat, qui obiit anno Domini Mcccc," and Ryland mentions it, giving the date in figures 1400. This shows another way of spelling what was probably the same name, for Donagh Magrath, a great benefactor to the Austin Friars of Dungarvan, died on the 9th March, 1400.

I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Magrath, Provost of Queen's College, and late Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, Mr. G. D. Burtchaell, Mr. W. H. Grattan Flood, and the Rev. W. D. Macray, F.S.A., for memoranda relating to the family which I have embodied in what follows:

The only connected scrap of Pedigree of McCragh in Ulster's Office is the following:

PHILIP MCCRAGH, Chief of the sept or family of the Craghs of Slieve Guse,
in the County of Waterford.

T

John McCragh, of Ballynegilky, — Ellen, daughter of James Butler, of

The Magraths were an old and influential family in the County Waterford, whose name is often written Crath, Craith, and McCraith. Sledy Castle (Curragh na Sletty) was one of their strongholds, even as late as the eighteenth century.

The John of the tomb was constable of Mocollop Castle. He married Katherine, daughter of Thomas Prendergast, who in the presentments of the Grand Jury on 18th of October, 1537, was described as being "of the New Castell." One of the sons of this Thomas Prendergast was a priest before the Reformation, and conformed" afterwards for a time, but is said to have "verted" back again before his death. The Prendergasts came originally from Wales, and were seated at Ennis

6.

corthy and elsewhere in the south-west of Ireland. Newcastle, County Waterford, was captured by Sir Henry Sydney in 1569.

Shane (our John) McGrath's sons figured conspicuously as followers of the Earl of Desmond from 1550 to 1569. On the 18th of November, 1569, the Earl of Desmond wrote from the Tower of London regarding the manor and castle of Mocollop to a grandson of the John of the tomb, son of his son John.

Another son of the former John was Rory, who fought at the desperate battle of Affane, County Waterford, in February, 1564-5, and who is described in the State Papers as "Rory mac Sheane MacCreagh, capten." In 1569 he was constable of Kilmanahan Castle, County Waterford.

In 1572 Donagh Mac Cragh was Archdeacon of Lismore. He was a layman, and was deprived on November 2nd, 1588. In 1580 Donagh Magrath (the same person?) was prebendary of Mondeligo, as recorded in Cotton's "Fasti."

In the time of Queen Elizabeth there was a branch of the McCragh family, "of Mountain Castle, County Waterford," and several of them are mentioned in the "Fiants."

The marriages of two daughters of Daniel or Donall McCragh, of Mountain Castle, are recorded in the Funeral Entries in Ulster's Office, viz. Ellen m. John Power of Rathcormack, County Waterford; and Joan m. Charles O'Carroll, of Beahanagh, King's County.

The southern McCraghs, of the County Waterford, appear to have been quite a distinct sept from the northern Magraths, although the name of the latter was frequently spelled the same way. Mr. Burtchaell is inclined. to think that Meiler Magrath took to this spelling of his name after he became Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, in order to distinguish his family from the Waterford sept. Camden calls him "Meilery Creagh." He was called "Meilmorre McCraghe" and "Moylmoorre McCragh" by Tyrone in 1599, when writing to Con O'Neill (Ms. Lambeth 632, quoted in Cotton's "Fasti," vol. i., p. 11). Dr. Brady found in the Barberini records. at Rome his provision by the Pope to the See of Down (and Connor), 12th October, 1565, where his name appears as "Magre" and "Macra." In his funeral entry and will the name is as on his monumental tabletMagrath.

We have tolerably full information about Archbishop Miler Magrath; and he was such a notable character, and so connected with Lismore, that I have thought it well to add a note recording the chief incidents in his long and eventful career. His family is sometimes mentioned in the "Annals of the Four Masters"; for instance, under the years 1440, 1469, 1471, and 1492. They were one of the four clans in Fermanagh not given in O'Dugan. They held some possessions named after them, Termon-Magrath, where they had a castle in the parish of Templecarn, within sight of Lough Eine, but situate in a portion of the

County Donegal, which obtrudes itself within two portions of the County Fermanagh. In papers by the Earl of Belmore, in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1903, a photograph of the castle is reproduced as well as of the archbishop's portrait in the Clogher Collection, and of his monument at Cashel. Termon-Magrath included Lough Derg, otherwise known as St. Patrick's Purgatory, about which much has been written, and of which Lord Belmore's paper quotes a most curious and amusing account from the pen of one Francesco Chiericati, a Papal Nuncio, who visited Ireland in the time of Henry VIII., translated in the "Life of Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua," by Julia Cartwright (Mrs. Adey), 1903.

Miler Magrath's portrait (half length) is the first of a series of ten uniform in size (about 20 by 18 inches) belonging to the See of Clogher, which, on the revival of that see as a separate bishopric in the Church of Ireland, were in 1888 returned from the Palace at Armagh. It shows the bishop with moustache and squared beard. His arms are depicted above, and are, in a different form, twice represented on his tomb along with his archiepiscopal cross and episcopal crozier. They are given in the Funeral Entries, and as "of Lambeth" (why ?), in Burke's Armory.

The Southern MacGraths are frequently mentioned in the "Annals of the Four Masters." In 1343 died Roderick Magrath or Mac Crath, Chief Poet. Under 1365 they are mentioned as Bards and Historians of Thomond; and one Rory of this family wrote a history of the "Wars of Thomond" in 1450, the original of which on vellum was in the collection of Sir William Betham, Ulster. See also under 1410, and 1415, and 1461. This family is said to have descended from one of the four brothers of Brian Boru, who left issue.

In 1401 a clan of the name was located in Tipperary, and a writer of that name is mentioned in O'Reilly's "Irish Writers." So lately as 1573 is recorded the obit of one of the family-styled "Chief professor of the Dalcassians in poetry, a man eminently learned in arts and skilled in husbandry." (See a memoir in the "Dict. Nat. Biog.," under the name 'Magrath,' by Dr. Norman Moore.)

In Sir A. Vicars' "Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland" to 1810, there is only one entry each under McCragh, McCraight, and McCrath, two under McCrea, and four under McCraith. These are all in the eighteenth century, and only that under McCraight is from north of Dublin. There is one of James Macrea, late Governor of Fort St. George in the East Indies, 1744. Under McGrah is one Dublin testator of 1760; McGrath has four. Magrath figures for twenty-four, from Milerius, Archbishop of Cashel, 1624, the first of that see proved. Most of the name were southerners, the only two from northwards being of County Roscommon. Only four, beside the Archbishop, date from the seventeenth century.