"Rites, praises, prayers, and charitable deeds,

These do not form Religion, but her dress;
Her movements and her meaning they express;
But she, herself, her lamp celestial feeds,
Shrined in the bosom. Thus a streamlet leads

Its even course along some valley green;
Hiding behind its banks, and hardly seen,
Save by its fringe of trees and fruitful meads.
Oh Thou, who didst the arching skies descend,
The human race to ransom and set free,

And make averted man once more thy friend;
What is Religion, but the love of Thee?

Guard, guard the exotic plant, and bid it bloom,

In every breast, till earth shall Eden's tints assume!"

The right side of this Carmelite chapel, from which the light flows, is pierced by windows, and the left is ornamented by a corresponding number of niches, filled with statues of Romish saints; while the ceiling, it may be observed, is coved, and divided into rectangular compartments.

The Carmelites had once about twenty religious houses in Ireland, of which their convent, adjoining the site of this chapel, was the most considerable. This convent was founded in the year 1274, by Sir Robert Baggot, an Englishman, upon a plot of ground purchased from the Abbey of Vallis Salutis, at Baltinglass, in the county of Wicklow; and, in the year 1333, the Irish parliament assembled in the hall of this convent.

Upon the suppression of religious houses, this convent and its possessions were granted to Francis Aungier, Baron of Longford, who actually resided there for a time, in the reign of Charles II. Lord Longford afterwards used the materials of the ruined convent in the building of a mansion in Aungier Street. The mansion was, in its turn, destroyed; and, in 1732, a theatre, erected of the same materials, assumed its place. The precise site of the ancient Carmelite Friary is now occupied by the Methodist meeting-house in Whitefriar Lane; the mansion of Lord Longford, as well as Sheridan's playhouse, having stood at the corner of Longford Street and Aungier Street.

After the dissolution of monasteries, the Carmelites of this house lived in private, occasionally assisting the secular clergy, until the year 1760, when they were once more associated in the little convent of Ash Street, within the liberties of Dublin. Having exercised their sacerdotal calling for many years in this retired situation, they removed at length to a more convenient house and chapel, in French Street, from whence they were transferred, in 1822, to the beautiful church which forms the subject of our illustration. This removal was principally to be attributed to the exertions of the prior of the order, the Rev. John Spratt, who purchased, for the sum of £2,000, the ground on which the present Friary is built, and which is situated within a few yards of the site of the first house, belonging to this order, ever established in Ireland.

The Carmelite Friary is a noble building; but every real well-wisher of Ireland must desire her emancipation from the papal yoke, not only with a view to her religious advantage; but, also, as a necessary step to her advancement in the scale of nations.

THE BEAUTYCULTURAL SOCIETY.

A LETTER FROM MISS LETITIA BELLAMONT, IN LONDON, TO MISS FANNY LAW,
OF CLARE, NORTHUMBERLAND.

BY THE HON. MRS. NORTON.

My dearest Fanny Law,-By way of infinite variety,

We've establish'd here, for good, a Beautycultural Society.
You've got your AGRICULTURAL,-which teaches turnip-growing,
And how to have late crops of hay, when early crops are mowing,-
And what the little pigs should eat, to keep 'em clean and white;
Subsoiling, tiling,-draining,—the Farmer's great delight;

With Mr. Huxtable's new mode of sowing turnip-seed

In little beds of saw-dust, (which is all the mould they need.*)
And you've got the HORTICULTURAL,-where flowers in a row
Tempt several thousand people to come and see the show;
Who wander, trampling everywhere the turf that look'd so well,
Till the bruised grass sends to heaven a most faint ill-omen'd smell;
And the pink and yellow bonnets cut the poor Azalias out;
And the Pelargonium fanciers, don't know what they're about.
But you've got no BEAUTYCULTURAL, which really is required
To train our women up to be, what most should be desired.

Our rules are very simple; a woman who puts on
Colours that don't become her, or are faded by the sun-
Or who wears her dress too scanty-or her petticoats too full,-
(A little affectation sent from France to poor John Bull)
Or who militates in any way against the general wish

To see a lady, at the least, as "well dress'd" as a dish,—
Shall be fined, according to her fault,-and the fines securely placed
At Farquhar's, or at Ransom's,—or a banker's of some taste,
For endowing poor young couples, such as everywhere abound,
Who've not yet learnt the secret, "to mak' the crown a pound,"

• Vide a curious experiment made by this gentleman, in pursuance of his declaration that he could a turnip on his dining-room table."

Like the well-beloved "young Jamie" who rashly went away
And left his grieving lassie to wed Auld Robin Gray.

Then we distribute medals,-of silver or of gold—

To the beauties whom good judges in high estimation hold; Like the Hudson great memorial, rewarding them, you know; For their faces are their fortunes, like the milkmaid's long ago, Who told the grumbling gentleman, who said he wouldn't wed, That she never had requested him, so no more need be said.

Then we found we must establish a Court of last Appeal;
So we begg'd some famous artists to take pity on our zeal,
For it really is their interest, it cannot be denied,

To keep down the spread of Ugliness, which threats on every side :
When a man has train'd his spirit to the very keenest sense,
Of everything like Beauty,-it must surely give offence:
And, for my part, I quite wonder, when Etty 's forced to meet
Some ugly crooked woman, in the parks, or in the street,
He don't show "an antipathy," and cry, Oh! dear, what's that?
Like people who scream out and faint, to see a tabby cat.

Eastlake and Etty,-Landseer,-Maclise, and others, came
And volunteer'd, most handsomely, each to put down his name.
Two make a quorum; and the appeal, rests upon their decree :
I hope they'll show some courage, and I'm curious to see:
For several great ladies, whose names, of course, I spare,
Have all been lately fined, my dear, for dressing much too bare:
Such an expanse of shoulders that were not fit to show!
"Ma foi! mais ça commence trop tard, et ça finit trop tôt,"
As Talleyrand, the famous wit, said, when he first look'd down
On a desperate abridgment of a "low-dress" evening gown.
Some of them paid up cheerfully the fines our rules impose,
(Reserving to themselves the right to wear the self-same clothes.)
But others vow that they'll appeal, and they know well enough
Artists of their acquaintance will not countenance such stuff.

I must break off my letter, and attend a meeting, dear,
But I will not close for post, until the latest news I hear.

P.S. The prizes have been given-but no time can be lost

I must hurry slightly through them, if I wish to save the post.

THE BEAUTYCULTURAL SOCIETY.

I came in while the judges were giving medals rare

To the Mothers of such children as did credit to their care.

"For the Loveliest Sleeping Infant," to the Duchess of A-g-le,
(It was like a little rosebud-if a rosebud could but smile.)

The prettiest "two-year old," (who walk'd, the distance from the door,
Being carried in his Nurse's arms, and set down on the floor :)
And the loveliest little "three-year old" that ever yet was seen
In a glittering ducal palace, or a daisied village green,
With eyelashes like shadows, and eyes like summer stars,

A little stately graceful thing no imperfection mars;

Both were won by Lady M-g-d; I don't know who had gain'd
The one before I enter'd; these were all that then remain❜d.

The great Gold Medal, which was struck from Summerly's design
Of the Graces and the Muses,-and is really very fine;

As the prize "For coming nearest to the classic Greek ideal,"
(And surely ne'er was beauty seen so perfect, that was real,)
Was won by Lady W-d. The Silver one was given
To Lady E―y de B.; and the artists said, by Heaven,
There should be a Second Gold one, if a case like this they find
Of beauty, scarcely classic, yet so perfect of its kind.

125

My time and paper run so short,-I really now must close.
There were prizes to the beauties whom everybody knows :
And some to beauties just come out: such pretty laughing creatures :
Miss Ch―tte B-rr-gt-n obtained the one "for Perfect Features."
The "Eyebrow Prize," for soft fine eyes, B- St- -y bore away;
The medal for complexion was Miss R-l's,-bright as May.
"For looking lovely, Singing"-with gentle fawn-like grace,
Was given to C―e G-h-m, who well deserved her place.
The award of some of them was made a ground for disputation,
But I know that H-tt-y E-11-tt won the Prize for Fascination.

After the Prizes, came the Appeals. I must say they were few—
For justice had been fairly done, as everybody knew.
The Artists flinch'd a little, when the half-dress'd ladies came;
Etty, (who's used to models nude,) acquitted them of blame,—
Eastlake, with pure and gentle eyes, look'd shyly on each dress,
And said, "perhaps the milliner had made a stupid guess,”—
Maclise, who (being an Irishman) meant kindly, I'll engage,
Said, "indeed, dress did'nt signify, after a certain age."

Landseer spoke Delphian oracles, whose meaning yet may dawn,—
"That the fronts of such fine palaces deserved a little lawn,"
Then whisper'd, while a sort of smile appear'd his mouth to twitch,
"Cambric, or lawn, or muslin,-I really don't care which !"

The meeting then broke up, and left. We are to meet again
And hold a court for prizes,-but it is not settled when.
Meanwhile, my cousin Bellamont is President, I hear;
Her picture will be given in the Scrap-Book for this year,
In a pretty fancy dress she wore, at a delightful ball
Where certainly she was the pink and flower of them all.
And where, not having room to dance,-by merriment elated,
This Beautycultural affair we first of all debated.

THE MARQUIS

OF ORMOND E, K.P.

AMONG the numerous followers of William the Conqueror, there was a brave young knight, by name Harveius Fitzwalter, whose services were less amply rewarded than were those of various adventurers who had far inferior claims on William's gratitude. A grandson of this knight, Theobald Fitzwalter, accompanied the Earl of Morton, afterwards King John, to Ireland, and was rewarded by large grants of land; he was also created Pincerna, or Chief Butler of Ireland, an office which, like that of Steward in Scotland, was one of high consideration, and from which the Ormonde family subsequently adopted its name.

James le Botiller, or Butler, the heir of the Fitzwalters, was created Earl of Ormonde in the second year of the reign of Edward III., and in the male line of his descent the title has continued five centuries. Of the Anglo-Norman families settled in Ireland, the Geraldines or Fitzgeralds were the most powerful and turbulent; they viewed with jealousy the growing power of the Butlers, and took up arms to check their progress. The Geraldines were deemed the chief support of feudal independence, and the Butlers, the great defence of the royal supremacy; the greater part of Irish history, from the reign of Henry II. to that of Elizabeth, is little more than a record of tedious and sanguinary wars between the rival families and the hostile principles which distracted the land.

The Butlers of Ormonde and the Geraldines of Desmond, may be said to have divided Munster between them; but when the royal authority was firmly established by the Tudors, the Geraldines, who vainly endeavoured to maintain the