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| ANCIENT RUINS, CHRIST CHURCH, DUBLIN. -No sacred edifice in all Europe, perhaps, has suffered more from fire than historic Christ Church in Dublin. Founded by Sitric the Dane, for Secular Canons, in 1038, it was changed more than a century later into a priory by St. Lawrence O'Tuhill, and underwent various alterations down to 1225. When the wrathful native Irish, driven to desperation by Anglo-Norman tyranny, burned the outskirts of Dublin, in 1283, the cathedral caught fire and the steeple, chapter house, cloister and dormitory were consumed. A mass of debris covered the ground for generations, and some of the buildings were never restored. The steeple was, however, and was again burned down in 1316. It is supposed that the remains shown in the picture are those of the original chapter house, as they beat all the marks of very ancient origin. Some antiquries hold that they belong to the cloister, but all agree that they are the most interesting archaeological remains of ancient Dublin. A singular fact in connection with Christ Church cathedral is, that Lambert Simnel, one of the Yorkist pretenders to the English throne, was solemnly crowned here in 1486, as "Edward VII" He found numerous followers among the Norman-Irish of the Pale, who also, to their ultimate ruin, followed the misfortunes of that other more brilliant "royal" adventurer, Perkin Warbeck, whom the King of Scotland recognized as "Richard IV." |
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