OUR LADY OF ABERDEEN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 403, 31 December 1880, Page 19

OUR LADY OF ABERDEEN.

A cobbespondent has bronght ns a little chip of wood which he received m a letter from Brussels the other day. His friend writes him : • As a curiosity I enclose a small piece of wood of the statue of UurLaay of Aberdeen. Cabinetmakers here think it ia either walnut or cherry wood, What would your Aberdeen tradesmen think of it 1 It is very hard and dry. One of those I spoke to says :— « The wood .is ot Eastern growth,' which would confirm the tradition that St. Margaret brought it from Hungary Thereis a deep slit m the back of the Btatue, crossed by a small plate of iron screwed on each side, made to attach the statue to the church wall. ' The morsel I send you was cut by me from the slit on Friday, 13th August, 1880. The statue is m the Church of Notre Dame de Finisterre, Rue Neuve, iJrussels ; and is known as the statue of Notre Dame de Don Succes." N<>w th* startue-of-Our Lady of Aberdeen was one of the ornaments of Bishop ElphinstOne's little chapel at the Bridge of Dee, carried over by a speculative skipper, and sold no doubt to good account in Glanders. It has often been. attempted to bring it back, but without success. — Aberdeen Journal. In reference to the above, " Scotus " writes to us as follows- : "It maybe remarked that in toe -Histofy-of the Statue, published at Brussels, it is stated to have been saved from the fury of the Knoxites t>y a pious layman, and carried to the Spanish Netherlands by the Spanish Council at Aberdeen. It is stated to hare been placed in "the south transept, or lady chapel, of St.MacWs Cathedral, by Bishop aV K?* i"? . Tu' Wj* been Previously in a wayside shrine. lam doubtful if the Bridge of Dee was the place, »ad I fear the good •Bruxellois will nbt let it return to us. the Hungarian item is new

A lecture was delivered on the Irish language on Simdav evenine (Oct 10), by Mr. F Faby. at the Home Bale g ßtioh (SSS?) eSS? Blackfriars Road, S. E. The audience was very large, iicluS several ladies.- The lecturer in a manner able and comprehensive" showed the antiquity of the Irish language, its invaluableoesslb translators in-many ancientinanusd-ipts, as-shown by several German litterateurs, and its possession of the several characteristic peculiaritiesi of Bumpe.au. Jaaguages. ,Tiie statistics • showing the -exteflf to which Irish is now spoken in aeveral parts of Ireland is somewhat painful. ,In .Antrim and-Dublm r £or- instance, it is firmplydisgracefurin the former county we find one in every 909, while in the otherlt is one in'7oß that can speak' Irish. This state ©f. things, said, the lecturer, must no longer exjst ; an endeavour must be made tq rescue from the mouth of the grave^ the language of our fathers. When the lecturer had taken his seat, a 1 member of the branch spoke in Irish m support of a vote of thanks to the lecturer. The committee" has opened-AHilass for the Irish language in the above room.