WEXFORD TOWN ANTIQUITIES

The ruins of the ancient monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul of Selsker, consisting of a tower, now forming part of the present church, and some of the arches, are still in existence. It is said that Cromwell, when he destroyed the church at the sacking of Wexford, carried away the ring of bells, and that they are now in one of the churches in Liverpool: according to tradition, the freedom of the town and exemption from the port dues of Liverpool were granted to the freemen of Wexford in lieu of these bells. There are no remains of the priory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or of the Magdalene leper house.

Some portions of the town walls, with five of the towers, three square and two round, are still in a sufficient state of preservation to show that the walls were 22 feet high, and were supported on the inside by a rampart of earth 21 feet thick: ruins of most of the old churches are still visible. Near the west gate was a strong chalybeate spring, now closed up. Many coins have been found at different times, but none of great antiquity: among them are some of copper of the dates 1605 and 1615, evidently struck off for tokens by merchants or dealers to supply the deficiency of legal coin.

Near the Windmill hill a rudely carved urn of unbaked clay, containing calcined human bones, was found in 1831. Nicholas French, author of "The Bleeding Iphigenia," and of several other political publications during the reign of Charles II., was a native of this town. Wexford gives one of his titles of Earl, in the Irish peerage, to the Earl of Shrewsbury.

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