early in the twelfth century. We are informed by
Archdall, that it had so gone to ruin in 1469 through the neglect
of the abbot, that he was evicted by order of Pope Paul II., who
commanded that the friars of the third order of St. Francis should
immediately take possession of it, which was accordingly done,
says Wadding, by Father Nicholas of that order. The whole of the
possessions were granted by James I. to James Viscount Clandeboye.

Bangor was one of the most celebrated schools in Ireland when this
island was said to have been 'the _quiet_ abode of learning and
sanctity.' As to the quiet, I could never make out at what period it
existed, nor how the 'thousands' of students at Bangor could have been
supported. The Danes came occasionally up the lough and murdered the
monks _en masse_, plundering the shrines. But the greatest scourges of
the monasteries in Down and elsewhere were, not the foreign pagans and
pirates, but the professedly Christian chiefs of their own country. It
appears, therefore, that neither the Irish clergy nor the people have
much reason to regret the flight of the Celtic princes and nobles, who
were utterly unable to fulfil the duties of a government; and who did
little or nothing but consume what the industry of the peasants, under
unparalleled difficulties, produced. The people of Clandeboye and
Dufferin might have been proud that their chief received 40 l. a year
as a tribute or blackmail from Lecale, that he might abstain from
visiting the settlers there with his galloglasse; but Lord Dufferin,
the successor of the O'Neill of Clandeboye, spends among the peasantry
of the present day 4,000 l. a year in wages. And how different is the
lot of the people! Not dwelling in wattled huts under the oaks of the
primeval forest, but in neat slated houses, with whitewashed walls,
looking so bright and pretty in the sunshine, like snowdrops in the
distant landscape. On the hill between Bangor and Newtownards, Lord
Dufferin has erected a beautiful tower, from which, reclining on his
couch, he can see the country to an immense extent, from the mountains
of Antrim to the mountains of Mourne, Strangford Lough, Belfast Lough,
the Antrim coast, and Portpatrick at the other side of the Channel,
all spread out before him like a coloured map.

CHAPTER XI.

THE REBELLION OF 1641.

The Rebellion of 1641--generally called a 'massacre'--was undoubtedly
a struggle on the part of the exiled nobles and clerg