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| FERRY CARRIG CASTLE, CO. WEXFORD. -The river Slaney is one of the most charming of Irish streams, and some points upon it have been favorably compared with the southern Blackwater, or in the patois of Edmund Spenser, the Avonduff. The ruin picture on the right of the sketch has been erroneously called Fitzstephen's Castle, because the first Norman invaders, under renowned chief of that name, landed in this neighborhood, in A. D. 1169; but authentic history ascribes the edifice to the Roche family, who came over with Henry II three years later than the warlike Fitzstephen. Tradition, so popular in Ireland, says however, that the bold Norman pioneer did build a stronghold on the opposite bank of the Slaney, where now rises the tall column, shown in the middle background of the picture, erected many years ago to the memory of the British officers, of Wexford birth, who fell fighting for the subjugator of their country in the Crimean war. The monument stands, by a curious coincidence, on the very spot where, according to ancient Irish annals, the first Anglo-Norman castle was erected in Ireland. This memorial was built in limitation of the ancient Irish round towers, but does not seem to possess their massiveness. |
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