28 Recent Antiquarian Explorations. 



disappeared, and the shops are fairly good and well stocked. 

 Thackeray further says, " If the ladies are pretty, indeed the 

 vulgar are scarcely less so. I never saw a greater number of 

 kind, pleasing, clever-looking faces among any set of people." 

 Limerick, like many other southern towns, would be greatly 

 benefited by a further extension of employment for the people. 

 The industries are few, and not sufficiently diversified. 

 America, no doubt, has absorbed the bulk of the people 

 described by Thackeray, as there is no other resource for them 

 if employment is not to be found at home. 



Our excursion on Thursday, 18th, was by special train to 

 Askeaton and Adare and back. We left Limerick at 10 a.m., 

 and after an hour's run we reached Askeaton. Here we 

 examined the lemains of an ancient castle, built by James, 

 seventh Earl of Desmond, in the first quarter of the fifteenth 

 century. It is situated in a rock above the level of the 

 adjacent ground. The square tower of the castle still stands to 

 a height of 90 feet, close by is the banqueting hall, underneath 

 the vaulted floor of which were the kitchens, now used as a 

 cowhouse. The marks of wattle work on the vaulted ceiling 

 are still very distinct. Situated beside the castle, on the lower 

 ground, is a house which was well known in the last century 

 as the " Hell-fire Club," whose members gained this unenviable 

 title by their midnight orgies and disreputable conduct. We 

 next proceeded to the ruins of the Franciscan Abbey founded 

 by the same James, seventh Earl of Desmond, in 1420. Its 

 present dilapidated condition is principally due to the injuries 

 it sustained by Melby's troops in 1579. They blew up the 

 walls with gunpowder, and so firmly cemented were they that 

 they still lie as they fell in large and solid masses. Notwith- 

 standing the ravages of war and time, this fine old ruin is still 

 most interesting. The cloisters are perfect with the exception 

 of one column, said to have been stolen by a Frenchman about 

 eighty years ago, who brought it to his own country to copy, 

 the design being considered strikingly beautiful. A river flows 

 past the abbey and through the centre of the town, where 



