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WAT
thropist; the entrance leads into a hall, from which
are seen the interiors of the city and county courts,
which are well arranged and lighted, but on a scale too
confined to afford suitable accommodation to the pub-
lic. The gaols, though of modern erection, are not well
adapted for general classification; the city gaol com-
prises 14 cells, and the county gaol has a sufficient
number of cells, with day-rooms and airing-yards (in
one of which is a treadmill), to receive the average
number of prisoners usually committed. The prisoners
are clothed and employed in various kinds of work,
and the females are under the superintendence of a
matron. The penitentiary, or house of correction, built
in the south-western suburbs in 1820, at an expense of
£4990, occupies a spacious quadrangular area enclosed
with a wall; at one extremity is the governor’s house,
round which are ranged the various cells in a semicircu-
lar form; behind the cells are gardens and ground in
which the prisoners are regularly employed; there are
in all 41 cells, with day-rooms and airing-yards, in one
of which is a treadmill, adapted to four distinct classes;
the whole prison is under a regular system of discipline
and employment, and a school is maintained for the
instruction of male prisoners.
The city is the seat of a
diocese, founded originally
about the close of the 11th
century by the Ostmen of
Waterford, soon after their
conversion to Christianity;
for which purpose they chose
Malchus, who had been a
Benedictine monk of Win-
chester, and sent him to
England to be consecrated
by Anselm, Archbishop of
Canterbury. Malchus enter-
ed upon his episcopal office in 1096, and died in 1110; of
his two immediate successors, nothing worthy of notice
occurs; after the distribution of the four palls by Car-
dinal Paparo, Augustine, the third in succession, was
appointed bishop in a council at Windsor, in 1175, and
sent by the king to Ireland, to be consecrated by his
proper metropolitan, Donat, Archbishop of Cashel.
David, the second in succession to Augustine, was con-
secrated in 1204, and, in addition to his own, seized the
temporalities of the adjoining see of Lismore, but was
assassinated in 1209; and Robert, who succeeded to the
prelacy in 1210, pursuing the same policy as his prede-
cessor, laid the foundation of continual feuds between
the two sees, which were carried on with fierce and
rancorous hostility. Stephen of Fulburn, who was con-
secrated in 1273, was, in the following year, made
treasurer and afterwards Lord Justice of Ireland, dur-
ing which time he caused a new kind of money to be
coined; and during the prelacy of Thomas Le Reve,
who succeeded in 1363, the sees of Lismore and Water-
ford were consolidated by Pope Urban V., and this
union, which had been long contemplated and fre-
quently attempted without success, was confirmed by
Edw. III. Hugh Gore, who was consecrated Bishop of
the united sees in 1666, expended large sums in repair-
ing and beautifying the cathedral, and bequeathed £300
for bells for the churches of Lismore and Clonmel, and
£ 1200 for the erection and endowment of an almshouse
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WAT
for ten clergymen’s widows, to each of whom he assigned
£10 per annum. Nathaniel Foy, who was made bishop
in 1691, greatly improved the episcopal palace, and. be-
queathed funds for the erection and endowment of a
school for 50 children, afterwards extended to 75, and
for the improvement of the estates, the surplus funds to
be applied to clothing and apprenticing the scholars.
The two sees continued to be held together till the pass-
ing of the Church Temporalities Act in the 3rd and 4th
of Win. IV., when, on the decease of Dr. Bourke, botn
were annexed to the archiepiscopal see of Cashel, and
the temporalities became vested in the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners. The diocese is one of the eleven that
constitute the ecclesiastical province of Cashel, and.
comprehends the eastern portion of the county of
Waterford; it is 13 miles in length and 9 in breadth,
comprising an estimated superficies of 31,30O acres.
The lands belonging to the see comprise 800O acres;
and the gross revenue of the united sees, on an average
of three years ending Dec. 31st, 1831, amounted to
£4323. 7. 1. The chapter consists of a dean, precentor,
chancellor, treasurer, and archdeacon, who has no vote.
Formerly there were the prebendaries of Kilcoman,
Rossduffe, Corbally, and St. Patrick’s, Waterford, and
four chaplains; and about the beginning of the 13th
century, King John endowed the cathedral with lands
to the value of 400 marks, for the support of 12 canons
and 12 vicars; but the estates were so wasted in the
different wars, that the four great dignitaries had not
sufficient to maintain them in comparative decency; and
Edw. IV., on their petition to that effect, granted them
a mortmain licence to purchase lands of the yearly value
of 100 marks. The Economy Fund, in 1616, amount-
ed to 100 marks; at present it is £144 per annum, a
sum very insufficient for the repairs of the cathedral
and the payment of the salaries of the choir, and other
officers of the cathedral. The consistorial court con-
sists of a vicar-general, surrogate, registrar and deputy-
registrar, apparitor, a proctor of office, and two other
proctors. The diocese contains 34 parishes, comprised
in 13 benefices, of which 11 are unions of two or more
parishes, and two single parishes; of these, 4 are in the
patronage of the Crown, 8 in that of the Bishop, and
the remaining one wholly impropriate; the total number-
ber of churches is 8, and of glebe-houses, 7.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity and com-
monly called Christ-Church, was originally built by the
Ostmen of Waterford, ‘in 1096, and the ancient edifice was
standing till 1773. It was a venerable structure, with the
parish church of the Holy Trinity and the chapel of St.
Nicholas, which was used as a vestry, at the east end,
and having also two other chapels, one on the south
and the other on the north side, the former of which was
used for a consistory court. The present church, which
is also parochial, was erected under the authority of a
committee appointed by the corporation, and superin-
tended by the dean and chapter, at the expense of
£5397, defrayed by a grant from the corporation, the
tithes of Cahir bequeathed by Bishop Gore for the
repairs of churches in this diocese and in that of
Lismore, the produce of the sale of pews, and private
subscription. It is a handsome structure, partly built
with the materials of the old church, in the modern
style of architecture, with a lofty and much ornamented
steeple rising from the west end; the whole length is
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