It is remarkable that the two silver-gilt chalices now in use at S. Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, are exactly the same in design, and dated (from the hall mark) 1635. They have been recently regilt, while ours has the gilding worn almost completely away. That this gift was not the first, or a solitary act, is proved by the note in a letter of Lord Cork, dated May, 1630: “I give my chaplain 50s. to pay the ffees to the officers of Trynitie Colledge, near Dublin, for the admittance of my two sons, Lewis and Hodge, into that house, and must also present plate.”[170] It would seem, therefore, that such gifts were still merely voluntary, whereas at some very early date the practice was adopted of taxing each student at matriculation for _argent_. In an account of the year 1628 occurs, “From Mr. Floyd, in lieu of two pieces plate to be bestowed on the College, £4.” If this was a matriculating Fellow Commoner, we can see that the custom was just then passing, like other “Benevolences” known in history, from being purely voluntary into the class of duties. But of all these early gifts, only the Communion Plate survives. What became of the rest appears from the following record (from the days of the great Irish Rebellion), which I quote from Dr. Stubbs:-- [In] the College [there] had accumulated a considerable amount of valuable plate, which had been presented to it from time to time by noblemen and wealthy commoners, whose sons had entered as students. In one of the early books there is an inventory of the plate, “8 Potts; 14 Goblets; 2 Beakers, 9 Bowles; 3 Standing Pieces”; and the names of the donors are preserved. In the Bursar’s books we find the following entries:--