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are a large flour and two grist-mills, but the want of
employment for the excessive population is very great.
The market is held in a small market-house on Tuesday
and Saturday; and a large market for pigs is held
every Monday from January to May, attended by buyers
from Waterford, Kilkenny, Clonmel, and Carrick-on-
Suir, and the sales are very extensive. Fairs for the sale
of live stock, wool, and, in autumn, considerable quan-
tities of poultry, are held on May 4th, June 13th, July
10th, Aug. 21st, Oct. 10th, Nov. 4th, and Dec. 14th; the
May, June, July, and October fairs are the principal.
Here is a chief station of the constabulary police.
This appears to be a corporation by prescription;
and it is recorded that Wm. Mareschal, or Marshall,
granted a charter to it in 1217. A writ of the 4th of
Rich. II. (1380) recites that the towns of Callan and
Kilkenny were part of the lordship of the Earl of Glou-
cester, and that all merchants and others within that
lordship ought to be free of customs and murage, which
immunities the sovereigns and commonalties had enjoy-
ed since the foundation of those towns; and commands
that they should not be molested against the tenour
of such liberties. Other grants were made in the 19th
of Rich. II., 4th of Hen. IV., 11th of Eliz., 7th of Chas.
I., and 30th of Geo. III. The corporation is styled
“the Sovereign, Burgesses, and Freemen of Callan,” and
consists of a sovereign and an undefined number of bur-
gesses and freemen, with two bailiffs and a town-clerk.
The sovereign is elected annually by the burgesses and
freemen: the latter are about 20 in number, and are ad-
mitted for life by the corporation at large. The borough
sent representatives to the Irish parliament of the 27th of
Elizabeth, and thenceforth without intermission until
the Union, when it was disfranchised, and the £15,000
awarded in compensation for the abolition of its electoral
rights was paid to George, Lord Callan. The town
court is held before the sovereign or his deputy gener-
ally every Monday, but sometimes on other days, for
the recovery of debts not exceeding 40s. late currency.
The limits of the borough include the entire town and a
considerable space round it, but extend unequally in
different directions, from half a mile to nearly two miles.
The corporation has a small property in lands and
houses, let for about £15 per annum, but derives its
principal revenue from the customs, which on an average
yield about £50 per annum.
The parish comprises 4700 statute acres, as applot-
ted under the tithe act, and valued at £5798 per annum;
about 600 acres were enclosed under an act in 1831.
The whole is capable of tillage, and, with very trifling
exceptions, is in cultivation; vast quantities of lime-
stone are procured and burnt for manure. West Court,
situated in a very neat demesne and surrounded by
trees of stately growth, is the residence of the Rev.
C. Butler Stephenson, the rector; it formerly belonged
to Lord Callan, and prior to that was the property of
the Earl of Desart. The living is a rectory and vicarage,
in the diocese of Ossory, united by act of council, in
1763, to the rectories and vicarages of Tullaroan, Tulla-
main, Coolaghmore, Killaloe, and Ballycallan, together
forming the union of Callan, in the alternate patronage
of the Crown and the Marquess of Ormonde. The
tithes amount to £550, and of the entire benefice to
£2338. 19. 10. There are two churches in the union,
one at Callan, and the other at Ballycallan. The parish
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church, which was very extensive, was formerly occupied
by Canons Regular of the order of St. Augustine, under
an abbot: the ante-chapel is in ruins, but displays two
windows of beautiful design and in good preservation,
and there are several tombstones of considerable anti-
quity, some of which are elaborately carved, with a hand-
some monument to the Comerfords; the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners have recently granted £393 for the repairs
of this church. The church at Ballycallan, distant about
four miles, is a small edifice, built about 60 years since
at the request of several of the inhabitants. There is no
glebe-house: the glebe lands of the union are in divers
places, and comprise 32 acres. In the ante-chapel at
Callan was a shrine under the invocation of the Holy
Trinity and St. Catherine, for the purpose of saying
mass for the repose of the noble family of Desart: this
foundation still exists as a chaplaincy, in the gift of the
Earl of Desart; it has no cure of souls, but the chaplain
is required to attend visitations. In the R. C. divisions
this parish is partly in the union or district of Bally-
callan; and the remainder forms the head of a union,
comprising also the parishes of Coolaghmore, Tullarnain,
Earlstown, and part of that of Kells, called Mallards-
town. The latter union or district contains three
parochial chapels, situated respectively at Callan, New-
town, and Coologh. The chapel at Callan is a spacious
edifice, not quite finished, in the southern part of
the towN; the interior is very neat, and the ceiling is
chastely and handsomely carved. The chapel or (as it
is called) church of the Augustinian friary was erected
through the exertions of the very Rev. John Rice, at an
expense of £4000: the building, which was commenced
in 1810 and completed in a few years, is of hewn stone,
in the ancient English style of architecture, and has a
beautifully groined ceiling: the altar-piece is the copy
of a design by Dominichini, by an-Italian artist; and
on each side of the altar is a niche, in which it is in-
tended to place two marble statues, now in progress of
execution at Rome by Mr. Hogan. The chapel is situa-
ted on the declivity of a hill; and in the basement story
are apartments for the clergymen, harmonising with
the general design of the building, and fronting a small
lawn environed by gravel walks enclosed between fences
of beech trees, and bounded by the King’s river, which is
crossed by a neat wooden bridge leading into the abbey
field, in which are situated the venerable ruins of the
ancient friary, consisting principally of a tower 90 feet
high. The friary is occupied by three Augustinian friars
of a different order from the Canons Regular previously
noticed. The Protestant parochial school, in which are
about 20 boys and 20 girls, is aided by donations from
Lord Clifden and the incumbent, who also contribute
to the support of a sewing school. “A national school,
in which on an average 212 boys daily attend, is en-
dowed with 25 acres, parcel of the late commons, by the
act of 1831; and another has been lately opened for girls,
of whom 167 daily attend on an average. There are also
several private schools in the parish. A dispensary is
maintained in the customary manner; and a loanfund has
been lately established. Callan gives the title of Viscount
in the peerage of Ireland to the family of Feilding, Earls
of Denbigh, in right of their superior title of Earl of
Desmond.
CALLIAGHSTOWN, a parish, in the barony of
NEWCASTLE, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEIN-