of Ardmacha, is built on the summit of Drumsaillech, commanding a beautiful view of the surrounding country. We are informed by ancient historians that St. Patrick, after having visited other parts of the country where he preached the Gospel and converted many from Paganism, arrived at Armagh, as is supposed, in the year 445. The chronology of St. Patrick's life has been rendered very uncertain by the introduction of legends, and the story of his Roman mission, so that it is impossible, as Dr. Todd writes, to separate completely the true from the fictitious in his history. The erection of a Cathedral Church at Armagh, says Petrie, is recorded by all the Irish annalists as well as by the most ancient authors of the lives of St. Patrick, at the year 445. The Four Masters, Jocelyn, and other authorities, however, agree in fixing AD. 458, as the year in which he founded the Cathedral, the site of which was given by Daire, the chieftain of the district, who resided on the summit of the hill where the Cathedral now stands, and was afterwards known by the name of Rath Daire. The year following he had his first synod the Canons of which are still preserved in "Spelman's Con.," vol. 1, p.51. There is a narrative in the "Book of Armagh" connected with the building of the Armagh Cathedral. The interview between the Saint and the Chieftain Daire is thus briefly narrated "There lived in the territory of the Easterns, a man both rich and honourable, whose name was DAIRE, and Patrick asked of him to grant a place for the exercise of his religion. And the rich man said to the Saint, What place dost thou desire? I pray of thee (said Patrick) to bestow upon me that eminence which is called the "Sallow Ridge," and there I will build me a place. Notwithstanding he would not grant that high ground, but he gave him another portion in a lower situation, where is now the Ferta Martyrum, beside Armacha, and there Patrick abode with his disciples. Some time after Daire came to do honour to the Saint, and he said unto him. "I now grant unto thee my whole right in that portion of the ground which thou formerly didst desire, and dwell thou there. And that is the city which now is called Ardmacha. And they went forth together, both St. Patrick and Daire, to view the admirable and well pleasing gift, and they ascended the height and found a roe and a little fawn with her lying on the spot where the altar of the Northern Church in Ardmacha now stands. And St Patrick's companion wanted to catch the fawn and kill it, but the Saint objected and would not permit him; nay, he even took up the fawn himself and carried it on his shoulders, and the roe followed him like a pet sheep, until he laid down the fawn on another eminence at the North side of Armagh. Supposed to be Knockadrain, (the Hill of Blackthorns) on which the R.C. Cathedral is built. The foregoing story is taken from an Irish manuscript of the eighth century, and the reader is at liberty to form his own opinion as to its probability. "Under the marvellous and exaggerated with which this story is overlaid, as one might expect in an Irish composition of the year 750, there exists beyond question a skeleton of real history." Dean Reeves.) During his residence at Armagh, St. Patrick laid out a large city, beautiful in situation; drew to it inhabitants, and established there Schools and Seminaries of Education. Not long after, he resigned the Primacy, and, as is alleged, spent the remainder of his days in retirement and contemplation. There is extant a very remarkable Irish hymn, said to have been composed by the Saint on the occasion of his going to Tarah to preach before the King and States of Ireland. It is called "St. Patrick's Armour," because it is a kind of prayer intended for a defence against the plots that beset his path to Tarah, through the malice of his Pagan foes. It is supposed by the learned to be the oldest undoubted monument of the Irish language in existence. The year of his death is uncertain. Dr. Lanigan com-putes it at AD 465, but' according to most authorities it was on 17th March, AD 493, in the 120th year of his age, in consequence of which that day has been observed for his commemoration in Ireland to the present time. He was buried in the Abbey of Saul, a church which he himself had founded at Downpatrick. From various sources we find that the remains of the three tutelar saints of Ireland-Bridget, Patrick, and Columkille were solemnly translated and placed in one monument in the Cathedral of Downpatrick, on 9th June, 1186. According to Cambrensis the following inscription was engraved on the monument :- Hi tres in Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno- Patricius, Brigida atque Columba Pius. Thus translated by the old chroniclers In Down three Saints one grave do fill- Bridget, Patrick, and Columhkill. In a description of the principal towns of Ireland, extracted from Holinshed's Chronicle, we read that the town of Ardmagh is said to be enemie to rats, and if anie be brought hither, presentlie it dieth, which the inhabitants impute to the praiers of St. Patrick.