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BAL
former for one year after; the sovereign is also coroner.
Burgesses are elected for life, but have no functions to
perform. The power of appointing the recorder and
town-clerk during pleasure, and also the clerk of the
market, was vested by the charter in Sir Maurice Eustace,
his heirs and assigns; and the serjeant-at-mace is ap-
pointed by the sovereign and burgesses. The freedom
of the borough is obtained only by gift of the corpora-
tion; the freemen are exempted from serving upon juries
without the limits of the borough, which, according to
the charter, extend beyond the town, and comprise 300
acres lying on the west and south sides. The corpora-
tion had nearly become extinct, there being only two
burgesses and not one freeman in 1832, when ten bur-
gesses were chosen. The borough returned two members
to the Irish parliament till the Union, when it was dis-
franchised, and the sum of £15,000 awarded as com-
pensation was paid to the trustees of the Earl of Aldbo-
rough: the sovereign was the returning officer. The
borough is included in the manor of Baltinglass, and the
manor court was constituted a court of record, in which
the seneschal presided, with jurisdiction to the amount
of £10, but has been long discontinued. The quarter
sessions for the western division of the county are held
here; as are also the petty sessions for the upper divi-
sion of the barony of Talbotstown, every alternate Friday,
before the county magistrates. The court-house is situ-
ated at the extremity of the principal street, on the eastern
bank of the river. The district bridewell, situated in the
town, contains ten cells, three day-rooms, and three
airing-yards, in one of which is a tread-wheel; and
though badly planned and inconveniently situated, it
affords sufficient facility for the classification of the pri-
soners usually confined within its walls.
The parish comprises 11,691 statute acres, as ap-
plotted under the tithe act. The lands are in a good
state of cultivation; the soil is fertile, and the system
of agriculture is improved; there is very little bog or
waste land. Stratford Lodge, the seat of Lady Eliza-
beth Stratford, is a spacious mansion pleasantly situated
in a demesne of 100 acres tastefully laid out and planted,
ornamented with several sheets of water, and command-
ing from the house some extensive views, including the
town, the valley, and a magnificent range of mountain
scenery. Saunders Grove, the seat of R. F. Saunders,
Esq., is a spacious and handsome mansion of hewn
stone lined with brick, beautifully situated in a rich
demesne adorned by the windings of the Slaney. Golden
Fort, situated on an eminence over the Slaney, opposite
the demesne of Saunders Grove, is the seat of Lieut.-
Gen. Saunders, who has very much improved the estate,
by the introduction of an improved system of agricul-
ture and a superior breed of cattle. The lands of
Golden Fort and Rathbran, both in this parish, are sub-
ject to a, charge of double county cess, an error which
will probably be rectified by the general survey now
in progress. Slaney Park, the residence of the Rev.
W. Grogan, and Whitehall, that of W. Butler, Esq., are
in the parish; and on the townland of Ladytown, which
is part of this parish, but detached and completely sur-
rounded by the county of Carlow, is Mount Lucas,
the residence of Capt. Jackson, commanding extensive
mountain views and the scenery of the valley. The
living is a rectory, annexed to that of Ballynure, in the
diocese of Leighlin, and in the patronage of Henry Car-
174
BAN
roll, Esq.: the tithes amount to £618. 9. 2¾ The
church, which occupies the site of the chancel of the an-
cient abbey, was repaired, and a square tower added to
it, in 1815, at an expense of £500, and a grant of £252
has been lately made by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
for its further repair. The churchyard is the burial-
place of the Aldborough family, and over the remains of
his deceased ancestors the present earl, in 1832, erected
a massive mausoleum of granite, terminating in a pyra-
midal spire. There is a chapel of ease at Stratford-on-
Slaney. In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of
a union or district, which comprises also the parishes of
Ballynure and those parts of the parishes of Timolin and
Moon which are in the county of Wicklow, and that
part of Kineagh which is in the county of Kildare; the
chapel near the town is a neat edifice with a tower, and
there is also a chapel at Stratford-on-Slaney. In the
town of Baltinglass is a place of worship for Wesleyan
Methodists, and at Stratford is one for Presbyterians.
At Stratford Lodge are two schools, one an infants’
school, and both supported by Lady Elizabeth Stratford;
and there are two other schools, altogether affording
instruction to about 260 boys and 190 girls. A
second infirmary for the county of Wicklow, contain-
ing four wards, in which are 20 beds, with a dis-
pensary annexed to it, has been established in the
town; there is also a savings’ bank. Within the de-
mesne of Stratford Lodge is a shop for supplying the
poor with goods at cost price. There are some con-
siderable remains of the Cistertian abbey, chiefly consist-
ing of a series of seven pointed arches springing from
alternated round and square pillars with curiously carved
capitals, which formerly separated the south aisle from
the nave; the church appears to have been a spacious
cruciform structure, and the west end, which is still
standing, has the remains of a lancet-shaped window of
three lights; the walls enclose a large area, which ap-
pears to have been surrounded with monastic buildings.
Of the ancient castle, now converted into a farm-house,
two Norman doorways leading into a court-yard are still
remaining; and formerly many fragments of stone highly
wrought lay scattered in all directions. Near the town
is a cromlech, and numerous other relics of antiquity are
said to have been lately existing there. On the eminence
on which Golden Fort is built are two circular intrench-
ments or raths, surrounded by moats, in one of which
the proprietor of the estate discovered, a few years since,
a number of gold coins, from which circumstance the seat
derived its name; and in the other, which is of larger
dimensions and in a much more perfect state, was found
a kistvaen containing an urn of rude pottery, in which
were ashes, with a number of human bones scattered
around: in the same demesne is an ancient cemetery.
Baltinglass gives the title of Baron to the noble family of
Stratford, Earls of Aldborough.—See STRATFORD-ON-
SLANEV.
BALTRAY, a village, in the parish of TERMON-
FECKAN, barony of FERRARD, county of LOUTH, and
province of LEINSTER, 2½ miles (E.) from Drogheda;
containing 428 inhabitants. It is situated at the estuary
of the river Boyne, on the eastern coast, and in 1831
contained 81 dwellings, of which the greater number are
thatched cabins.
BANADA, a village, in the parish of KILMACTIGUE,
barony of LENEY, county of SLIGO, and province of CON-