January 1678/9.--Finding the place very troublesome, partly by reason of the multitude of business and important visits the Provost is obliged to, and partly by reason of the ill education that the young scholars have before they come to the College, whereby they are both rude and ignorant, I was quickly weary of 340 young men and boys in this lewd, debauched town, and the more so because I had no time to follow my dearly beloved studies.[50] I have already noted that this enterprising Englishman was bent on promoting the study of the Irish language. Let me quote what Dr. Stubbs says-- “Among the Smith MSS. in the Bodleian Library is preserved a letter[51] from Marsh when Primate, in which he gives some account of the condition of the College during his residence as Provost. He was particularly anxious, as he states, that the thirty Irish-born Scholars, who then enjoyed salaries equal to those of the Junior Fellows, should be thoroughly trained to speak and write the Irish language. He desired that these should be a body from which the parochial clergy of Ireland might be recruited, in order that the people should have the ministrations of religion in their own language. The majority of the Natives knew nothing of the grammar of the language, and could make no attempt to read it, or to write it. In order to counteract this ignorance, Marsh determined that he would not elect to a native’s place any scholar who was not ready to learn the Irish language thoroughly, and that he would not allow them to retain their places unless they made satisfactory progress. To enable them to do this, he employed a converted Roman Catholic priest, Paul Higgins, who was a good Irish scholar, and who had been admitted as a clergyman of the Irish Church, to reside in his house, and to give instruction to the Scholars of the College,[52] at a salary of £16 a-year and his board. He had also the Church Service read in Irish, and an Irish sermon preached by Higgins in the College Chapel on one Sunday afternoon in every month, at 3 P.M. These services seem to have been open to the public; and we learn from Marsh’s letters that the ancient Chapel was crowded by hearers on the occasion of the Irish sermons, the congregation numbering as many as three hundred. We have no record of the continuance of these Irish services after Marsh ceased to be Provost.”