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LEINSTER 17
hers, and still lie there, under a column in the nave;
though the indecency of antiquarians dragged out
their skulls when the cathedral was under restora-
tion, made a show of them at parties, and preserved
a memorial of this outrage in plaster casts, now de-
posited in the robing-room.
You can see also, in the vestry, not a cast, but
the authentic skull of William's General Schomberg,
who fell in glory at the head of victorious troops
crossing the Boyne. You can read also Swift's epitaph
on the tomb which Schomberg's relatives and heirs
declined to pay for, leaving the pious task to Swift
and his chapter. The Latin sentence keeps the vibrant
ring of Swift's indignation. If only his ghost could
write the epitaph of those who ransacked tombs and
groped among mouldering relics of the immortal and
unforgotten dead, to find objects for a peepshow!
Yet after all it is in keeping with the story. In the
dark end of Swift's life, while he paced his guarded
room between keepers, servants used to admit
strangers for a fee, to see that white-haired body
which had once housed so great and terrible a mind.
St. Patrick's Cathedral, which Swift made famous,
dates, like Christ Church, from Norman builders; but
it was renovated fifty years ago at the cost of Sir
Benjamin Guinness, head of the famous brewery.
Christ Church, on the other hand, was rebuilt out of
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