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Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

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FEI<br />

a constabulary police station. The living is a vicarage, in<br />

the diocese of Limerick, united at an unknown period to<br />

the vicarage of Glenogra, and in the patronage of the<br />

Bishop; the rectory is appropriate, to the vicars choral<br />

of the cathedral of Christ-Church, Dublin. The tithes<br />

amount to £553.16. 11., of which £369. 4. 7½. is payable<br />

to the lessees of the appropriators, and the remainder to<br />

the vicar: the tithes of the benefice amount to<br />

£379. 11. 3½. The glebe-house was built by aid of a<br />

gift of £300 and a loan of £500 from the late Board of<br />

First Fruits, in 1816; there are six acres of glebe<br />

attached to it, and there are also two other small glebes<br />

in the parish. The church is a small ancient edifice.<br />

In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union<br />

or district, comprising also the parishes of Ballycahanc,<br />

Manister-Ncnagh, and Kilpeacon, in which are two<br />

chapels; the chapel at this place is a large and hand-<br />

some edifice, which cost £700. About ‘200 children are<br />

taught in two public schools, of which the parochial<br />

school is endowed with half an acre of land from the<br />

glebe, on which it is situated. A residence for the mas-<br />

ter was built at the expense of the Rev. Godfrey Massey,<br />

then curate of the parish. The other school, at Grange,<br />

is liberally supported by H. O’Grady, Esq., who built<br />

the school-house. AtFanningstown, near the northern<br />

boundary of the parish, are the remains of Temple Hue,<br />

a church erected by the Knights Templars in 1288.<br />

Adjoining the demesne of Ballyneguard is Roekstown<br />

Castle; and in it is Willianistown Castle, erected by the<br />

Bourke family, a plain square building in its exterior,<br />

but curiously fitted up internally in the Gothic style;<br />

it has been renovated and restored to its ancient ap-<br />

pearance by the Messrs. Pain, architects. At English-<br />

town is another castle, built by Sir J. Fitzgerald.<br />

FEIGIIAN of FORE, or FOWRE (ST.), a parish,<br />

in the barony of DEMIFORK, county of WESTMEATH,<br />

and province of LKINSTER, 2½ miles (E.) from Castle-<br />

Pollard, on the road to Kells; containing, with the<br />

market-town of Collinstown (which is separately de-<br />

scribed), 2447 inhabitants, of which number, 119 are in<br />

the village. This place, which is situated on Lough<br />

Lene and is of great antiquity, was formerly a borough,<br />

comprising the parishes of St. Feighan and St. Mary,<br />

and appears to have originated in the foundation of<br />

a priory for Canons Regular by St. Feehan, about the<br />

year 630, in which, while presiding over 3000 monks,<br />

he died in 665. From this time till 1169 the priory and<br />

the town, which had risen up around it, were, repeatedly<br />

destroyed by fire; but in 1209, Walter de Lacy re-<br />

founded the priory under the invocation of St. Taurin<br />

and St. Fechin, for Benedictine monks, and made it a<br />

cell to the monastery of that order at Evereux, in Nor-<br />

mandy. The town appears to have acquired all the<br />

privileges exercised by other corporate boroughs in<br />

Heath. In 1436, Hen, VI. granted certain customs<br />

upon all merchandise coming to its market:, or to any<br />

other within three miles of it, for the purpose of en-<br />

closing at with a stone wall, as a barrier against the in-<br />

cursions of the Irish, who had thrice destroyed it by fire;<br />

and in 1448 he made his farmer of the priory lands,<br />

though a layman, prior of the monastery, in reward for<br />

the trouble he had taken, and the expense he had in-<br />

curred, in erecting a strong castle for the defence of the<br />

town. After the dissolution, the priory was granted by<br />

Queen Elizabeth, in 1588, to Christopher, Baron Delvin,<br />

616<br />

FEI<br />

whose successor, Richard, Lord Delvin, obtained for the<br />

town the grant of a fair. It appears to have been a<br />

borough by prescription, and to have sent two members<br />

to the Irish parliament till the Union, when it was dis-<br />

franchised and the £15,000 awarded as compensation<br />

was paid to Arthur, Marquess of Downshire. There<br />

are still some remains of the ancient abbey and of an<br />

anchorite’s cell,the latter a small massive building of very<br />

ancient character; and the ruins of several square towers,<br />

evidently built for defence, round which may be traced<br />

the. walls of a very considerable town, of which two of the<br />

gates are still remaining. The present village, which is<br />

situated at the base of the Ben of Fore, in a fertile valley<br />

.sheltered by some high hills, separating it from Lough<br />

Lene, contains only 20 small houses, and possesses but<br />

a few indistinct remains of its ancient importance. The<br />

parish extends along the borders of the county of<br />

Meath, having on one side the small lake called Lough<br />

Glore, and on the other the White Lake, between which<br />

is a range of heights terminating in a lofty mountain,<br />

called the Ben of Fore. It comprises 6506 statute acres,<br />

of which a small portion is mountain land, and the re-<br />

mainder principally under tillage; the soil is light and<br />

gravelly. Limestone abounds, but of inferior quality,<br />

and there are some quarries of good building stone.<br />

Lough Lene, about half u mile south of the village, is a<br />

fine, sheet of water, studded with small islands and sur-<br />

rounded by rising grounds; on the south-east a stream<br />

issues from it, and passing under the hills emerges close<br />

to the village, where it turns a mill, und thence con-<br />

tinuing its course, under the name of the Glore, falls<br />

into the river Inny; another stream, issuing from the<br />

east of the lake, takes an opposite course and falls into<br />

Lough Dele. The principal gentlemen’s seats arc Beni-<br />

son Lodge, that of the Rev. T. Smyth; Lough Park, of<br />

N. Evans, Esq.; Barbuvilla, of W. B. Smyth, Esq.,<br />

Hilltown, of W, Webb, Ksq,; and Sullytnonut, of G. S.<br />

Kotheram, Esq. A market, fairs and petty sessions<br />

are held at Collinstown.<br />

It is a curacy, in the diocese of Meath, forming part<br />

of the union of Rathgraft, or Castle- Pollard; the rec-<br />

tory is wholly appropriate to the vicars choral of the<br />

cathedral of Christ-Church, Dublin, The tithe’s amount<br />

to £390. In the. R. C, divisions it in the head of a<br />

union or district comprising a1SO the parisher of St.<br />

Mary and Kilcumucy, and containing two chapels,<br />

situated respectively at Fore and Collinstown, A school<br />

is supported by Mr. Smyth, of Barbavilla, and there are<br />

three private shools, in which are about 100 children.<br />

On a high hill to the south-west of Lough Lane is a<br />

fort, said to have been constructed by Turgesiun, the<br />

Danish king of Ireland. The family of Nugent, Mar<br />

quesses of Westmeath, have a burial-place at Fore and<br />

there are some remains of a monastery on one of the<br />

islands in Lough Lene, the property of Mr. Smyth.<br />

The surrounding country abound with raths.<br />

FEIGIICULLEN, a parish, partly in the barony of<br />

EAST OPHALY, but chiefly in that of CONNELL, county<br />

of KILDARE, and province of LEINTER, 4½ miles (N,)<br />

from Kildare, on the Grand Canal; containing 890 in-<br />

habitants. It comprises,3835 statute acres, as applotted<br />

under the tithe act, exelusively of a large tract of bog,<br />

and about 20 acres of common: the state of agriculture<br />

is gradually improving. At Grange Hill is a vein of<br />

lead ore. The gentlemen’s seats are Newington, the

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