THE NEW ABBOT OF MOUNT MELLERAY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 49, 6 April 1894, Page 15

THE NEW ABBOT OF MOUNT MELLERAY.

Tub appointment of a new Abbot of Mount MelUray— Fath e r Delaney, vtho has been Prior for the last thirty years— reminds me (a writer in United Ireland) of an amusing passage in Duffy'* "Young Ireland," describing the visit of the author, John (afterwards Judge) O'Hagan, and Dennis Florence MacCarthy to the monastery in 1844. "Have you ever visited Mount Mcl I cray ?" writes Duffy to Davis. " Do. Tbe monks show what industry and security could make of the waste lands of Ireland. It is very solemn up yonder in the mountains, and the organ in tbe little church playing a Tc Devm for oar victory [O'Connell and the other State prisoners had just won their appeal in the House cf Lords and been released from prison] moved me as music never did before. It wse like a chorus of exultiDg aDguls. We were delighted to tiud tbe ' Voice ' (of tbe Natwii) io their library, and when we reached Cappo<ium celebrated our visit by six aod tbirty rhymes on Melleray, which are duly recorded in O'H.'b journal. . . . Somebody started the idea of findiog a rhyme for that puzzling noun proper Melleray. It was at first assumed that there was no English rhyme but celery. The travellers, however, soon hit upon others, and agreed to fabricate a couplet in turn till one of them broke down. They succeeded in turning out three dozen jingles, and each new Bucceta waa welcomed with a chorus of huzzas and laughter louder and heartier, of course, when tbe success was only woo by a hair's breadth. After a lapse of a generation some of the couplets linger in my memory, with other reminiscences of that pleasant time. This was the first and tbe worst : — From O' Cornell and Steele and that j >Ily good fellow Bay, I've scampered away to the monks of Mount Melleray. And this, perhaps, the most audacious, when one of tbe competitor! was driven to extremity for the sixth and thirtieth rhyme :—: — They tunnelled a road would have puzzled Brunnell, 8.8., Such adroit engineers are tbe monks of Mount Melleray. Long before each man bad completed hia round dozen it became necessary to shift the accent from the antepenultimate syllable ; ex gr\— I met a young maiden, but straightway down fell h tr eye, She took; me for one of the monks of Mount Melleray."

Messrs Herbert, Haynes and Co., Princes street, Dnnedin, call special attention to their mantle department. Exceptional circumgiances enable the firm to offsr to ladies a choice not to be f >und elsewhere, aod which must meet tbe most exacting r qairementa. *i Messrs Langdown and Steele, Colombo street, Christcnurch, will be found alwayß supplied with a large and excellent stock of meat of every description. Orders will receive prompt and satisfactory attention.