MAINHAM

MAINHAM, a parish, in the barony of IKEATHY and OUGHTERANY, county of KILDARE, and province of LEINSTER, 1 ½ mile (N.) from Clane, on the road from Celbridge or Maynooth to Naas; containing 738 inhabitants. It is chiefly under tillage, but contains some good pasture land: the soil is fertile and the system of agriculture improving; the potatoe crops are universally drilled. Fuel is obtained in abundance, and at a very moderate expense, from a valuable tract of bog in the parish. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Kildare, forming part of the union of Clane; the rectory is impropriate in the representatives of Lord Falcon-berg; the tithes amount to £124. 4. l ½.

In the R. C. divisions the parish belongs to the union or district of Clane; the only chapel is the domestic chapel belonging to the R. C. college at Clongowes Wood, an extensive establishment under the superintendence of the members of the Society of Jesus, for the education of young men of the R. C. religion in every department of classical and polite literature; the building, a noble castellated mansion beautifully situated in an extensive and richly wooded demesne, is described under the head of CLANE. About 120 pupils are educated in it.