181 



of the entire, which shewed that the upper part of the shaft 

 had been broken off, and with it the first line of the inscrip- 

 tion. Of what remains the first line is illegible, but the rest is 

 tolerably distinct. It is in the black-letter character of the six- 

 teenth century, the letters being beautifully formed; and (fill- 

 ing up the contractions) it runs thus : 



^' ^rmfgeit, ct Jttargaretae IBnttx uxon's cfus ac 



fiereHum eorum qui j^anc cruccm fcccvunt anno Bomt'ni 1588 

 quorum anfmalius propicfctur Beus, gUnun." 



This inscription leaves little doubt that this memorial was 

 one of the Wayside Crosses so generally erected by the piety 

 of individuals about the sixteenth and the preceding centuries, 

 but which the ill-directed zeal of a subsequent period so 

 unsparingly mutilated, and often wholly destroyed. Upon 

 inquiry it proved that a road, leading from Navan to Rath- 

 aldron Castle, long the residence of one of the principal 

 branches of the ancient family of the Cusacks, once passed 

 close in front of this cross. 



The name of the husband of " Margaret Dexter" Mr. 

 Smith soon after learned from a manuscript in the possession 

 of Mr. Henry T. Cusack. This MS. is written in French, and 

 entitled " An Historical Memoir and Genealogy of the ancient 

 and illustrious House of Cusack, of the Kingdom of Ireland." 

 It appears to have been compiled by the Chevalier O' Gorman 

 in the year 1767. It states that " Michael de Cusack, lord 

 of Portrane and Rathaldron, married Margaret Dexter, who 

 brought him, as a marriage portion, the castle, town, and 

 lands of Rathaldron. He was ' Greffier' [a term which Boyer 

 translates ' Registrar,' or Keeper of the Rolls] of Westmeath 

 and of Louth in 1553, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in 

 1580, and died in 1589." From this it may be safely con- 

 cluded that the initials " M. C," upon the cross, are those of 

 " Michael Cusack," and that his was the name sculptured on 

 the upper part of the cross, now lost. 



