Illustrated London Letter.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 253, 22 October 1892, Page 4 (Supplement)

Illustrated London Letter.

(FKOM OCR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

London, September. The Irish Parliament House.

Now that the wishes of the Homo Rulers seem within measurable distance of being realised, eager glances of hope and. fear are being directed towards Collcgo Green, where stands the colossal structure which once formed the Irish Houses of Parliament. At present ib is possessed and occupied by the Bank of Ireland; bub Irishmen are asking themselves whether the walls, which formerly echoed to the eloquence of Grattan, of Flood, of Egan, Curran, Fitzgibbon, Hely-Hutchinson, and many another Irish orator, may not resound with the fervid utterances of tho Irish patriots of to-day. Here, in 1782, the independence of the Irish nation was declared, amidst what has been described as the moat thrilling scene in the annals of the country. Considered merely as a building aparb from these stirring memories,_ it merits a few words of description. It is a magnificent edifice. In form it is semicircular, and ib covers nearly an acre and a half of ground. The grand portico on College Green is the chief entrance ; a fine lonic colonnade adorns the front and extends round three sides of a quadrangular recess. The House of Peers, which taces College-street, possesses another portico of great beauty. Its frontage consists of six Corinthian columns of exquisite proportions, and the apex is crowned with statues of' Fortitude,' ' Justice, and ' Liberty.' Thero is also a fine statue of Grattan in front of the Parliament House. Before the presenb odifice, which cost £100,000, was erected, Parliament sat in a private house. When ib was pulled down, and the existing houses were being built on the same site, a move was made to the Bluecoat Hospital There the Parliament sat periodically until the new build Ings were opened. In this magnificent pile the Home Rulers will find a Parliament House ready to^hand, if they can secure it.

Sib Walter Raleigh's Birthplace,

That Sir Walter ia one of the worthiest of the worthies of Devon has never been disputed, but the actual place of his birth was a bone of contention as lato aa 1888. Both Exeter and Fardell claimod him as their own ; but the discovery of an ' autograph letter of Sir Walter Raleigh, having reference to the sale of Hayes Barton, hia birthplace,' settled tho mattor for good and all. Dr. Brushfield, of Budleigh Salterton, noticed this letter in tho Armada Exhibition held at Plymouth in 1888. In it, Raleigh expresses his strong desire to buy the farmhouse where ho first saw the light in 1552. The room in which he was born is on the flrsb floor of tho left wing. The house is built of cob—that ia a mixture of red

earth and chopped turaw —and tho roof is of thatch. Those who know will tell you that a cottage whose walla are of cob and whose roof is a tbatched one, will prove as Bnng a shelter against the wind and rain of the West Country as the body of man can desire. Hayes Barton stands in a quaint old garden, and it is surrounded by rich pasture land and low hills. An oak wood can be seen from its front windows, and not three miles away roars the stormy Atlantic. Atosb of Raleigh's boyhood, we are told, was nob spent here, but at Compton Castle, near Torquay, where his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilberb, lived. Still, he must have spent many an hour wandering over the moors near his home, or rambling on the seashore not far away.

A Welsh Lourdes.

If France has her Lady of Lourdes, who works miraculous cures, and to whose shrine pilgrims flock in thousands, Wales has her Lady of Llanthony, whom Father Ignatius delights to honour. The annual pilgrimage to the Lady of Llanthony is becoming popular among those who believe in her. They say she appeared some seven or eight years ago to one of tbo sisters in a

convent near by. Since then the pilgrims have become so numerous that as each year comes round it is increasingly difficult to obtain sufficient accommodation for Hem. Monastery and coavatt are filled to

overflowing. Tho pilgrims have much to do, for there are prayers to bo m'ui, mass musb be hoard, and then thero in the torchlight procession to the Holy Bush. Llanthony lies romobo from the busy hum of men, and, presumably, it is left untouched by the progress of modern thought. Away up in the recesses of tho mountains, it is ten long miles from Abergavenny, tho nearest town and railway station. Five milos from the ancient priory of Llanlhony dwells Father Ignatius and his Anglican monks in a modern monastery, a veritablo medieval nest in a nineteenth century landscape. Should the band of pilgrims to this Welsh Lourdes go on increasing, as it bids fair to do, wo shall need another Chaucer to ariso among üb, tbab their doings and sayings may be chronicled for the instruction, edification, and amusement of future generations : 'The Llanthooy Tales, by Dun Chaucer the Second.\

Old Oddity's Grave.

Ordinary common-sunso folk are generally contenttoletplainMothorEarthbe their lust resting place. Some there are who despise this Blow process of dust to dust, and profer bhe rapidity of cremation, which leaves but a handful of ashes behind. Henry Trigcr, of Stevenage, in Hertfortshire, evidently despised both earth and urn burial as being too unnoticeablo. It is possible that tho story of Mahomet's coffin may have unduly influenced him when he made his remarkable will in 1724, for in ib he says, 'I, Henry Trigg, of Stevenage, in the county of Hertford, do now umko my last will and testament. My body I commit to the west end of my hovel, to be decently laid there upon the purlins, nothing doubting but at tho general

resurrection I shall receive the same again by the power of God.' Ho goes on to say hat he devises all bis freehold lands to his irotber Thomas, if he lay hir body on the ,)iuce above mentioned. If Thomas refuses via lands go to his brothor George on the game conditions. La.tly, should George refuse, ho leaves all to his nephew, on the same conditions. As be mentions no one else he takes it for granted that his nephew is suro to comply. Thab his wishes were carried out hundreds can testify, for the coffin to this day lies in the stable suspended between earth and heaven for all tbo world to see. If Honry Trigg thirsted for notoriety, bis thirst baa been quenched —after death.

The Colliery Disaster.

The disaster at the Park Slip Colliery, South Wales, adds another .to tbo Jong catalogue of mining explosions. Since 1845, lifby-bliroe colliery explosions, including that of Park Slip have occurred in South Wales and Monmouthshire, and tho list of deaths lias reached the extraordinary mirn-

ber of 2,154; of this total 208 parsons wore killed in 1090. Such a record applying to but one part of the country seems a terrible reflection on all the resources of science and engineering, which appear powerless to prevent the recurrence of these catastrophes. Tho magnitude of the present) disaster was happily exaggerated at first, for it was feared that all bub two of the 140 men in the pit had perished. But some forty men were found safe and sound, and emerged from tho pit like men returned from the dead. One can imagine how touching were the scenes when these men went back to their homos and to their sorrowing wives and children. Their story is but a repetition of the oft-told tale of mining explosions—a sudden and violent explosion, which shook tho mine and threw the men off their feot, a rush of foul air, a suffocating atmosphere and intense darkness.. One man stated that he and his companions, in attempting to make their escape, fell asphyxiated to the number of half a dozen at a time, and had to lie until they regained consciousness. They then staggered to their feet and resumed their journey, etumbling over dead bodies ab every stop, until thoy reached the exploring partios and wore carried to the mouth of the pit in a state of great weakness and exhaustion.