326 



In 1213, the English went to Athlone, and King John the following 

 year built a castle there ; and in 1279, Edward I. granted to St. Peter's 

 Abbey the weirs and fisheries of Athlone, and also the tolls of the 

 bridge. 



What description of bridge existed at Athlone from that period to 

 the building of the one recently taken down by the Shannon Commis- 

 sioners, I have not been able to determine. That structure was erected 

 by government, and completed on the 2nd of July, 1567 ; and on the 

 centre of the southern parapet stood a richly-ornamented limestone en- 

 tablature containing a long inscription, in relief, descriptive of the erec- 

 tion of the bridge in the ninth year of the reign of Elizabeth ; — by the 

 advice and order of Sir Henry Sidney, then thirty- eight years of age, 

 and Lord Deputy of Ireland : — ''In which yeare was begone and fineshed 

 the faire newe wourke, in the Casthel of Dublin, besidis many other 

 notable workis done in sondri other placis in the Eealm ; also the arch 

 rebel Shane O'JN'eyl overthrown, his head set on the gate of the said 

 Castel ; Coyn and Livry aboleshed and the whole Realm brought into 

 such obedience to her Majistie as the like tranquilitie peace and .... 

 wh ... in the memory of mane hath not bene sene." 



Above and around this inscription were several well-executed bas- 

 reliefs of figures and coats of arms, all of which are now in the Academy. 

 Prior to the bridge being taken down by the Shannon Commissioners, 

 in 1843-44, drawings of the monument and the bridge were made, and 

 sent to Dublin Castle ; but they cannot now be discovered. All the 

 sculptured or inscribed stones were, however, forwarded to Dublin, and 

 were by the Treasury placed at the disposal of the Lord Lieutenant (at 

 that time Earl de Grey), who presented the stones containing the inscrip- 

 tions to the Academy in April, 1844 (see ''Proceedings," vol.ii., p. 576); 

 but the effigies and coats of arms, &c., the most interesting portion of 

 the monument, remained in the Custom-house until now, when I have 

 been commissioned by the Board of Public Yf orks to present them also 

 to the Academy. They consist of: — A half-length figure of Sir Henry 

 Sidney in bas-relief, but wanting the head (which had evidently been 

 repaired at some time), in a stone, 25 inches high by 34 wide, in plate 

 armour, with the right extended hand holding a drawn sword. In the 

 top left-hand corner of this tablet are his arms — two lions rampant and 

 two broad arrows, or pheons, within the garter. 



A full-length bearded figure, in a stone 29 inches long by 24 broad, 

 of the Eev. Sir Peter Lewys, chanter of Christ Church, in gown, cas- 

 sock, and bands — " bi the good industri and delegence" of whom the 

 bridge " was fineshed in les then one year." On the right extended 

 hand, which holds a rope, there is the figure of a rat biting the thumb, 

 to which a tradition (related by Dr. Strean, in his " History of the Pa- 

 rish of St. Peter's, Athlone," published in Mr. Shaw Mason's "Parochial 

 Survey of Ireland," in IB"" 9, vol. iii., p. 55), says used to foUow the 

 superintendent everywhere, until finally it bit his thumb, when he died 

 of tetanus. 



