The Boyne Valley. 6i 



monastic buildings and ancient church having disappeared. 

 The next and last place of interest on the river is the very 

 ancient town of Drogheda, which would be an ample text for 

 an entire lecture. The great tumulus now called Millmount is 

 similar in type to those already referred to, and is probably 

 chambered in the interior. From the time of Saint Patrick in 

 432 to ib49, when it was stormed by Cromwell, and in 1690, 

 when it was occupied by James II., its history can be traced all 

 through the ages. Turgesius, the Danish king, occupied and 

 fortified it early in the 9th century, and King John visited it in 

 year 12 10 and gave it a charter. Parliaments were held in 

 Drogheda, and the law known as Poynings Law was passed 

 there. King Richard 11. received the Irish chiefs in St. Mary's 

 Abbjy w^hen they came to make their submission. The learned 

 primate, James Ussher, lived in Drogheda near to St. Lawrence's 

 gate. He it was who secured the Book of Kells for the 

 library of Trinity College. Phelim Roe O'Neill in 1641 

 besieged Drogheda, when it was successfully defended by Sir 

 Henry Tichbourn. Few towns in Ireland can boast of so 

 many famous men having visited it. St. Patrick first, next 

 Tingesius, the Danish King, King John, Hugh De Lacy, 

 Richard II. and the northern princes who came to pay their 

 respects to him. Red Hugh O'Donnell, and the great Earl of 

 Tyrone, Phelm Roe O'Neill, Oliver Cromwell, James II., and 

 Wilham III. St. Lawrence's gate still stands in a good state 

 of preservation, as well as some portions of the ancient walls- 

 The Magdalene steeple is the only remains of the Dominican 

 Monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene. In the cemetery 

 attached to the Parish Church of St. Peter's there are many 

 curious tombstones. Of modern buildings there are two 

 extremely fine Roman Catholic Churches just completed ; also 

 the great railway viaduct, the finest in Ireland. At the Inver 

 or mouth of the river stands the Maiden Tower, a Pharos or 

 lighthouse, erected in the time of Queen Elizabeth. This 

 brings us to the end of the river and the end of our subject 

 also. We have now surveyed the Boyne from its source to the 



