That many abandoned their superstitious practices and "turned to God from idols" will be made abundantly clear in the course of the following narrative; and for all that has been done the devout Christian will doubtless be disposed, as Mr. Nangle always was, to ascribe to "the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Only Wise God, honour and glory for ever and ever."

CHAPTER II.

EARLY LIFE AND PREPARATORY WORK.

"Unskilful he to fawn or seek for power

By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour;
Far other aims his heart had learned to prize,
More bent to raise the wretched than to rise."

GOLDSMITH.

DWARD NANGLE was born in the year 1799 at

EDWA

Kildalkey, near Athboy, in the County Meath. His father was Walter Nangle, Esq., who held a commission in the 16th Regiment of Infantry, and retired from the Army with the rank of Captain. He was, according to Sir Bernard Burke's Peerage and Landed Gentry, three times married, and had a very large family. The subject of this memoir was his third child, by his second wife, Catherine, daughter of George Sall, Esq., of Dublin.

The Nangles belong to one of the oldest and most influential families in Ireland. The Rev. Dr. Brooke, in his most interesting Recollections of the Irish Church, says: "The old Celtic families in this country whose ancestors were zealous servants of the Pope of Rome are, at this moment, with very few exceptions, sound Church Protestants." Dr. Brooke gives as instances the O'Neills,

the O'Briens, the Quins, the Fitzpatricks, the Dalys, the Plunkets, and others. "Then as regards Commoners," he says, "these are of ancient race and thoroughly and purely Celtic in descent." In the list, which includes the Kavanaghs of Borris, the O'Haras of Antrim, the Sheridans and O'Reillys of Cavan, and the Malones of Westmeath, he mentions also the Nangles.

About the antiquity of the family there can be no doubt, but the Celtic descent of the Nangles is not so well established. They came over, according to Sir Bernard Burke, from England at the time of the "invasion of Ireland" in the reign of Henry II., 1169 to 1172.

Among the Knights who accompanied Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, better known in history as Earl Strongbow, were Gilbert de Angulo or Nangle, and his two sons Jocelyn and Hostilio. From the latter descended the family of Costello, called after him Mac Hostilio or Mac Costello. They acquired possession of an extensive territory in Connaught, and they took a very prominent part in public affairs. The heads of the family were for several centuries among the most powerful chieftains of the West of Ireland. From them the Barony of Costello in the County Mayo derived its name, whilst the chief of the clan was styled Baron Costello. Hostilio de Angulo, or Nangle, mentioned above, was the father of Miles Mac Hostilio, who left a son named Philip Mac Costello.

Gilbert de Angulo, the head and chief of the Nangle family, obtained from Hugh de Lacy the whole territory of Maherigalen, now the Barony of Morgallion, in the County Meath. This property was inherited by his eldest son, Jocelyn de Angulo, to whom Hugh de Lacy gave Navan and the lands of Ardbraccan, conferring on him there with the title of Baron Navan. About the year 1190 Jocelyn de Angulo is said to have founded an Abbey in Navan.

From this date through a succession of seven centuries the family may be traced in an unbroken line of descent until we come down to the Rev. Edward Nangle, the only member of the family who, so far as appears, ever was admitted to Holy Orders. Edward Nangle was himself twice married: first, to Eliza, daughter of Henry Warner, Esq. of Marvelstown House, County Meath; and, secondly, to Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh, late Rector of Hacketstown, County Carlow. One of Mr. Nangle's daughters was married to John Wilson, Esq. of Daramona House, County Westmeath, and the other to F. W. Smart, Esq., M.D., of Ballymahon, County Longford.

It is almost unnecessary to say here that whilst Mr. Nangle was able to boast, as few can, of his ancient lineage, he appears throughout the whole of his career never to have written a single word on the subject. He was content to be "a good soldier of Jesus Christ," rather than to bear arms, as many of his predecessors had done, in the service of an earthly

monarch. At the same time he seems to have inherited that contempt of danger and that boldness in the hour of trial which are essential to success on the field of battle in spiritual no less than in physical contests. His old friend, the Rev. Dr. Brooke, to whom I have already referred, tells us in the 12th chapter of his Recollections, that he was forced through want of space to omit all mention of the Home Missions of the Church of Ireland. For example," he says, "I should like to have brought to the front the formation and success of the Achill Mission and Colony, and the honoured and venerable servant and true soldier of Christ, the Rev. Edward Nangle, who through so many dangers and difficulties planted that great Protestant tree amidst the rocks and mountains of the wild West, and by the grace of God sheltered it and nourished it, till it brought forth fruit in consonance to his prayers and his purposes, and to the good of his fellow-creatures."

It must ever be a matter of deep regret that Dr. Brooke did not give the public the benefit of the knowledge which he possessed respecting the Achill Mission. The foregoing extract, however, will show what he thought of Mr. Nangle.

It is always interesting to know how the boyhood of men who have made themselves in any way remarkable was passed. Few particulars of Mr. Nangle's schoolboy days have come down to us. I can find no reference to these days in his own manuscripts; but a letter which I received in