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stock and general merchandise. There are three con-
venient market-places, built at the expense of the Duke
of Devonshire: the meat and fish markets, on the north
side of the river, are held in a commodious building in
the form of a polygon, surrounded by stalls and forming
a piazza for the market people: the potatoe, corn, and
egg markets, on the south side, are held in an oblong
edifice conveniently fitted up and well adapted to its
several uses; more than 20,000 eggs are sold here every
week during the spring, and are conveyed to Cork to
be shipped for England. The tolls of the town belong
to the Duke of Devonshire, and, after the determination
of a demise of them to the corporation in 1806, were
paid until 1830, when His Grace suspended the collec-
tion of them until some arrangement should be effected
by the legislature. A regular and extensive intercourse
is maintained between this town and Cork, for which
city several stage coaches leave daily and return the
same evening; the Cork and Bantry mail passes and
re-passes daily, and every alternate day a stage coach
from Skibbereen to Cork passes through the town:
there are also mail coaches every day to Kinsale, Dun-
manway, and Timoleague. Here is a chief station of
the constabulary police.
The inhabitants were incorporated by charter of the
1lth of Jas. I. (1614), and, by letters patent of the 19th
of Chas. II. (1667) received a grant of lands in the
baronies of Ibane and Barryroe. Jas. II., in the 4th of
his reign, granted a new charter founded on a seizure
of the franchises, which soon became inoperative, The
corporation is styled “The Provost, Free Burgesses, and
Commonalty of the Borough of Bandon-Bridge;” and
consists of a provost, 12 burgesses, and an unlimited
number of freemen, assisted by a town-clerk and two
serjeants-at-mace. The common council is a body not
mentioned in the charter, but constituted by a by-law
of the corporation made in 1621: it consists of twelve
members, who are elected from the freemen by the
corporation at large, as vacancies occur. The burgesses
are chosen from the common council, on vacancies oc-
curring, by the provost and burgesses j and the provost
is elected annually from and by the burgesses at Mid-
summer, and enters upon his office at Michaelmas: the
provost and burgesses also appoint the town-clerk and
serjeants-at-mace. The freedom is at present acquired
by grace, birth for the eldest son of a freeman, and
nomination of the provost, who during the year of his
office has the privilege of naming one; the freemen are
elected by a majority of the body at large assembled in
a court of D’Oyer Hundred; neither residence nor any
other qualification is considered necessary. The borough
sent two members to the Irish parliament prior to the
Union, since which period it has returned one to the
Imperial parliament: the right of election was formerly
vested in the provost and burgesses only, but by the act
of the 2nd of Wm, IV., cap. 88, has been extended to
the £10 householders; and a new boundary was formed
for electoral purposes closely encircling the town, and
comprising an area of 439 acres, which is minutely des-
cribed in the Appendix. The number of voters re-
gistered in March 1836 was 367, of whom 355 were
£10 householders and 12 burgesses: the provost is the
returning officer. He is also by charter a justice of the
peace within the borough, and is named in all commis-
sions of the peace for the county. A court of record
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was formerly held every Thursday, with jurisdiction to
the amount of £3. 6. 8., but has been discontinued of
late years. The quarter sessions for the West Riding
are held here in October; and petty sessions for the
division are also held here every Monday by the county
magistrates, who by courtesy have concurrent jurisdic-
tion with the provost within the borough. The court-
house is a neat substantial building; and not far from
it is a commodious county bridewell. Manorial courts
for the recovery of debts under 40s. are held once in
three weeks respectively by the seneschals of the different
manors: the manor of Castle Mahon or Castle Bernard
belongs to the Earl of Bandon; Coolfadda, to the Duke
of Devonshire; and Claugh McSimon, to the Earl of
Shannon. The corporation formerly possessed lands
under the patent of Chas. II. amounting to about 1340
statute acres, which having mortgaged at different
periods, they finally disposed of with a view to pay
certain debts in 1809, since which period they have had
no income or property of any kind.
The parish churches of Ballymodan and Kilbrogan
are both in the town: the former is not distinguished
by any architectural details of importance; it contains
a handsome monument to Eras. Bernard, Esq., one of
the justices of the court of common pleas, and an
ancestor of the Earl of Bandon. The church of Kil-
brogan, commonly called Christchurch, was begun in
1610 by Henry Becher, Esq., and finished by the first
Earl of Cork in 1625, as appears by a date on a stone
in the south wall: it is a cruciform structure, and
occupies the site of a Danish encampment; in the
churchyard are the graves of three of Clancarty’s sol-
diers, who were slain in the attempt to take the town
for Jas. II. In the R. C. divisions this place is the head
of a union or district which comprises the parishes of
Ballymodan and Kilbrogan, and part of that of Desert-
serges: the chapel is a spacious and handsome edifice,
built by subscription in 1796, and situated on an eminence
in the south part of the town: there is also a chapel at
Agrohil inKilbrogan. On an elevated site in the north part
of the town is a convent of the Presentation order, esta-
blished in 1829, to which are attached a domestic chapel
and a spacious school-room, in which, according to the
season, from 200 to 400 poor female children are gratui-
tously instructed. There is a meeting-house for Pres-
byterians in connection with the Synod of Munster;
also places of worship for Primitive and Wesleyan
Methodists, of which that for the latter is a large and
handsome edifice. The classical school was founded by
the Earl of Burlington: the master has a commodious
residence, with suitable offices and a large play-ground
attached, and receives a salary of £40 per ann. from
the Duke of Devonshire. A suitable building in the
old Cork road, comprising separate school-rooms for
boys and girls, an infants’ school, and apartments for
the master and mistress, was erected at the expense of
the Duke of Devonshire: the former, containing about
100 children, is supported by the trustees of Erasmus
Smith’s foundation; and the latter, in which are 90
infants, is supported by the joint contributions of the
Duke and the rector of the parish. A large and hand-
some school in Shannon-street, in which 120 girls and
100 infants are gratuitously taught, was built in 1814
by the proceeds of a repository and by contributions, and
is supported by subscriptions of the Duke of Devonshire