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are sub-stations at Newtownbarry, Freshford, and Gore’s-
bridge: there is also a chief constabulary police station
in the town. The market-days are Monday and Thurs-
day; and fairs are held on May 4th, June 22nd, Aug.
26th, and Nov. 8th. The revenue of the post-office,
according to the latest return to Parliament, amounted
to £1395. 1. 6.
The earliest charter on record relating to the borough
is that of Wm. Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, granted
about the close of the 13th century. It created an open
community of burgesses endowed with considerable
privileges, including a guild mercatory and other guilds,
with exemption from tolls and customs throughout the
earl’s whole lands, except the towns of Pembroke and
Wexford; it also mentions a hundred court as being
then in existence in the town, and ordained that it should
be held only once in the week. Jas. I., in 1613, granted
a charter of incorporation, conferring, among other pri-
vileges, a right to return two members to Parliament;
and the present governing charter was obtained on
petition from Chas. II., in 1674. Jas. II. granted a
charter founded on a seizure of the franchises by a
decree of the exchequer, which being declared void, it
soon became inoperative. Under the charter of Chas. II.
the corporation is styled “The Sovereign, Free Bur-
gesses, and Commonalty of the Borough of Catherlagh;”
and consists of a sovereign, twelve free burgesses, and a
commonalty, assisted by a town-clerk, two serjeants-at-
mace, a weighmaster of butter, and a bellman. The
sovereign is annually elected by the sovereign for the
time being and a majority of the burgesses from their
own body, on the 24th of June, and enters upon his office
on the 29th of September: he is ex officio a justice of the
peace for the borough and the county, and clerk of the
market, and with the approbation of the burgesses may
appoint one of them to be his deputy. The burgesses
are elected from the freemen by a majority of the sove-
reign and burgesses; the town-clerk and serjeants-at-
mace are chosen by the sovereign and burgesses, and
the weighmaster of butter is appointed by the sovereign.
The freemen are elected by the sovereign and burgesses.
The borough returned two members to the Irish par-
liament till the Union, since which period it has sent
only one to the Imperial parliament. The right of
election, previously confined to the sovereign and bur-
gesses, was, by the act of the 2nd of Wm IV., for
amending the representation, extended to the resident
freemen and £10 householders, of whom, including the
suburb of Graigue, which has been comprised within
the new electoral boundary (of which the limits are
minutely described in the Appendix), the number is
383, of which 380 are householders, and three freemen
resident within seven miles; the sovereign is the re-
turning officer. By the charter the corporation had
power to hold a court of record for pleas to the amount
of five marks; but they at present exercise no jurisdic-
tion whatever, either civil or criminal. The assizes, and
also the quarter sessions for the county, are held here;
and petty sessions are held every Thursday before the
sovereign and county magistrates. The manor court
has jurisdiction to the amount of £10 late currency
over the entire town and an extensive rural district; it
had fallen into disuse prior to 1833, when the lord of
the manor, B. Hamilton, Esq., appointed a seneschal,
and the court was revived, but few cases have been
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since determined in it. The court-house, a newly erected
building at the junction of the Castledermot and Athy
roads, near the entrance of the town, is a handsome
octagonal edifice with a fine Doric portico, in imitation
of the Acropolis at Athens, resting upon a platform to
which is an ascent by a broad flight of steps; the whole
is of hewn granite of chaste design and execution, and
forms a striking ornament to the town. Near it is the
county gaol, well adapted for the classification and
employment of prisoners, who are engaged in useful
labour and are taught trades, to qualify them on their
discharge for a life of useful industry; the female pri-
soners are carefully instructed and employed under a
duly qualified matron; a school has been established,
and the sick are carefully attended by the medical
officer; but the hospital is not yet sufficiently prepared
for the reception of patients. There is a tread-wheel,
which is worked for raising water to supply the gaol.
The parish comprises 1955 statute acres, of which
about 648 are plantations, a few acres bog, and the
remainder good arable and pasture land. The surround-
ing scenery is pleasingly varied and in many parts
beautifully picturesque; and there are several handsome
seats in the parish. Oak Park, formerly called Paynes-
town, and now the residence of Col. Bruen, is a hand-
some spacious building, consisting of a centre and two
wings, situated to the north of the town in a fine demesne
embellished with stately groves of full-grown oak. To
the east of it are Browne Hill, the seat of W. Browne,
Esq.; and Viewmount House, formerly the seat of Sir
E. Crosbie, Bart., and now the residence of R. C. Browne,
Esq., pleasantly situated and commanding a beautiful
prospect of the neighbouring country. On the opposite
side of the river, below the town, is Clogrennan, the
seat of J. S. Rochford, Esq., beautifully situated in a
highly improved demesne. The living is a rectory, in
the diocese of Leighlin, and in the patronage of the
Crown for two presentations, and of the Bishop for
one: the tithes amount to £400. The church is a
modern structure, with a beautiful spire terminating at
an elevation of 195 feet, having a massive gilt cross
presented by the ladies of Carlow: the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners have recently granted £488. 4. 10. for
its repair. Near the river, to the north of the town, is
an ancient burial-ground, called “The Graves,” said to
have been granted to the parish by the Earl of Tho-
mond. There is no glebe-house; the glebe comprises
3½ acres. The R. C. parish is co-extensive with that
of the Established Church, and is the benefice of the
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. The R. C. cathedral is
an elegant cruciform structure, in the later English
style, with a lofty tower at the southern extremity of
the transept, surmounted by a lantern of beautiful
design terminating at a height of 151 feet from the
base: it occupies the site of the old chapel, and is a
rich ornament to the town. At the foot of the altar
are interred the remains of the Rt. Rev. Dr. James
Doyle, late bishop, distinguished by his letters under the
signature of J. K. L., and his important evidence before
both houses of parliament. He entered the college of.
Carlow, as professor of rhetoric, in 1809, and was soon
afterwards appointed professor of theology; in 1819 lie
was raised to the R. C. see of Kildare and Leighlin, and
died of a lingering decline on the 10th of June, 1834.
Braganza House, the residence of the R. C. bishop,