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| SELSKAR ABBEY, WEXFORD. -A part of the interesting remains of Selskar Abbey appear in the accompanying sketch. Immediately in the rear of the ruins may be observed a wing of the modern Episcopal church which stands, well-founded tradition says, on the very spot where the first treaty was entered into between the invading Anglo-Normans and the Danish and Celtic Irish in 1169. After the massacre, which, in connection with that as Drogheda, has rendered his name odious in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell caused Selskar's fine peal of bells to be transferred to a church in Liverpool, England, in consideration of which the merchants of Wexford were granted exemption from port duties in the English city, and "the freedom of the town." The abbey is alleged to have been built under the following singular circumstances: In the days of the early crusaders-probably in the reign of Richad de Coeur de Lion-a romantic knight, named Sir Alexander Roche, of Atramont, fell in love with a beautiful maiden of humble parentage. In order to separate him from the object of his adoration, Roche's "cruel parents" induced him to go to the Holy Land in the armies of the English king. He returned, crowned with glory, to find his father and mother dead, and his "lady-love" in a convent. In despair, he founded Selskar, calling it St. Sepulchre, of which the modern name is a corruption, and became its first prior. |
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