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THE UNIVIRELAND. In the turbulent centures that followed the Norman invasion, several efforts were made to establish universities in Ireland. In 1311, John de Leah, Archbishop of Dublin, obtained a bull from Pope Clement V authorizing him to establish a university in Dublin, but he died before anithing could be accomplished.

An attempt was made in 1465 to found a university in Drogheda this was to be endowed, as far as the Prliament of the England Pale could do it, with all the rights and privileges of the university of Oxford. The parliament concerned was presided over by Tomas, Earl of Desmond two ears later he was attainted and beheaded, his estates were confiscated, and

once more the idea of a university came to nothing.At last,in 1591, the idea was realized. TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN In that year a group of Dublin citixents obtained a charter from Queen Elizabeth I incorporating Trinity College as a mater universitatis. By this term they envisaged that a group of university colleges would sterm from

Trinity in the continental and English styleowing to the course of Tudor and subsequent Irish history that ideal has not yet been realized.The Corporation of Dublin granted to the new foundation the lands and dilapidated buldings of the Monastery of All Hallows,lying south-east of the sity walls Subscriptions were raised from among the principal gentleman of each country, who had been invited to

assist the new college to the benefit of the whole country, whereby Knowlege, Learning and Civility may be increased,to the banishment of barbarism,tumults and disorderly living from among them. A number of landed estates were secured to the College out of the confiscations which followed the defeat northen Earls. The university was designed to encourage English culture in

Ireland,and to promote the reformed religion in its statutory form,so that its establishment afforded no opportunities for higher education to recusant bodies, whether Catholic or Dissenting. The college survived the storms of the Cromwellian and Revolution periods, and settled down as the university of the colonial ascendancy, taking its tone from the new Whig society,mainly mercantile and nouveau riche,which had been put in power by

the Williamite victory. Yet even in the religious and political doldrums of the eghteenth century, the true university and liberal spirit survived in Trinity,and its alumni included Swift,Berkeley, Bruke, Goldsmith, Grattan,and Wolf Tone. Towards the close of the century there was an awakening sense of independence and of patriotism in what had been a colonial minority, with a consequent relaxation of the penal code which had discriminated,

in religion and culture, against the native Irish and the Anglo-Irish majority and after the passage of the Catholic Relief Act,1793, Trinity abandoned the exclusive character it had hith erto borne. Since 1947, the College has received substantial grants from the Irish State. Recent years have brought to the University a great diversity of students, wuth many of

the undergraduates coming from Great Britan and from overseas. The University is represented by the Chancellor,Vice-Chancellor and Senate,whose main function is to confer degrees.The College is governed by the Board of Trinity College.The assent of the Board is required to all professional chairs and other academic posts, and determines

details of courses and examinations. The Povost of the College is nominated by the Goverment from one of three names submitted by the Board. Except in this last respect,the University and the College enjoy complete autonomy. The College Library is Great Britan and Ireland. THE NATIIVERSITY of

IRELAND. Under the QueenТs College Ireland Act,1845,Colleges were established by the Goverment at Cork, Galway and Belfast,to provide higher education on a non-denominational basis. Ufortunately, the character of these Colleges were felt to be out of accord with Catholic educational principles, and after a storm of public controversy they were condemned by the Hierarchy. In 1854,the Catholic University of Ireland was established by the

Hierarchy, who invited John Henry Newman to be its first Rector. Newman, imbued with the liberal principles embodied in his celebrated Idea of a University, was not quite at home amid the realities of Irish political and religious controversy, and his brave experiment failed. As Newmans University was not recognized by the State,it could not confer degrees,neither did it have

any public endowment. Coriously, its best success was in medicine, for the College of Surgeons and the ApothecariesТ Hall recognized the courses of study pursued by the Catholic University Medical School students and admitted them to the College and Hall examinations, thus to become registered medical practitioners. The Royal University was founded in 1879. This was merely an examining body, set up mainly for the

purpose of enabling the students of the Catholic University to obtain recognized degrees. In 1883,the Catholic University,henceforth to be called University College,Dublin, was placed in the charge of the Society of Jesus, who maintained it succesfully until the passing of the Irish Universities Act,1908. This Act provided for the dissolution of the

Royal University and of QueenТs College, Belfast, and for the foundation in their stead of two new Universities, one in Belfast which was to become Queens University, and the other, in Dublin,the National University of Ireland. The two universities are self-governing institution ope- rating under charter, autonomous as regards policy and administration, and appointing their own academic and administrative staffs.

The National University of Ireland is a federal university, with a central office in Dublin and three Constituent Colleges University College Dublin, University College Cork, University College Galway and one Recognized College, St. PatrickТs College, Maynooth. Maynooth is a seminary for the training of

Catholicclergy. It was founded in 1795 and endowed by a Goverment who, chastened by the French Revolution, recognized the conservative and conserving character of the Irish priesthood. In 1845 the Maynooth College Board of Trustees was incorporated by Statute, and in 1899 was invested by the Holy See with authority to confer degrees in Philosophy,

Theology, and Canon Law. The National University itself does not teach the courses for degrees are conducted by the Colleges which, in practice, lay down their own programme and set their own examinations. Courses are given in the various faculties,with certain exceptions,at each of the Constituent Colleges and in Arts, Philosophy and Sociology, Celtic Sudents, and Science at Maynooth. Courses in

Dairy Science are given only at University College Corkcourses in General Agriculture and Veterinary Science are outside of Trinity College confined to University College Dublin.By the University Education Agriculture and Dairy Science Act, 1926, the Royal College of Science and the Albert

Agricultural College were Transferred to University College Dublin, which was empowered to continue the functions formerly fulfilled by these institutions. Like Trinity College, the National University receives, through the Department of Education, financial assistance from the State in the form of annual grants-in-aid, as well as non recurrent grants for capital purposes.

Each of the Colleges is a complete organism,with its own Governing Body and full con- trol of its own finances. RURAL DOMESTIC ECONOMY SCHOOLS. There are twelve residental schools of Rural Domestic Economy,seven of which operate under the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. The schools are privately owned,but the

State subsidized and subject to inspection in the same way as agricultural colleges.Students are admitted from the age of 15 upwards.The course runs from September until June.The syllabus comprises theoretical and practical instrustion in the following subjects - Poultrykeeping, Dairing, Cookery, Housewifery, Dressmaking, Laundry, Arts and Crafts, Phisiology, Higiene, First

Aid and Home Nursing, Horticulture and general subjects. At the end of the course, a standart examination compris- ing written,oral and practical tests, is heid and certificates are awarded to successful candidates.About 600 young women attend these schools annually. Over 250 scholarships awarded by County Committes of

Agriculture, each year, are tenable at the schools. In addition, capitation grants are payable for each eligible pupil.Some pupils who complete the session at a rural domestic economy school proceed to other studies, for careers in Poultry Specialization, Farm Home Management, Domestic Scients,Hotel Management,or Nursing.The course at the schools is, however, a good training

for all future housewives. The Munster Institute, Cork, under the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, conducts advanced courses for selected pupils from rural domestic economy schools - 1.A three year course in Farm Home Menagement. 2.A three year course in Poultry Specialization. 3.A one year course in Poultry Husbundry. Girls who complete the three years courses are employed as

instructors by the Country Committees of Agroculture, or as teachers. Girls who cmplete the years course in Poultry Husbundry are employed as technicians in the poultry industry. ART SCHOOLS. The Metropolitan School of Art began as an academy established in 1746 by the Royal Dublin Society, for the promotion of drawing and painting. During the first hundred years of the Schools existence,instruction was free of chargeand the four

departments of figure drawing,landscape and ornament,architecture,and modeling,provided courses useful to sculptors, embroiderers, weavers, printers, silversmith and workers in other crafts.In the ninteenth century, the School was successively under the control of the Royal Dublin Society, the Board of trade, the Department of Science and Art,and the Department of Agroculture and

Technical Instruction for Ireland. Following its transfer to the last-named body, classes were established in the principal artistic crafts, including metalwork and enemelling, mosaic, embroidery and woodcarving. The School also aquired a high reputation for its part in the development of stained glass and for the felicitous influence which,under the guidance of Sir William Orpen, it exerted on painting in Ireland.

In 1924, control was assumed by the Department of Education an extension and development of the School, was established. The National College of Art is the principal institution of the sistem of Art Education in Ireland as administered by the Departmentt of Education. Its general purpose is to promote the advancement of

Art,to advocate and maintain the highest artistic values in national culture, and to combine artistic design with practical skill in the interests of industry. There are three schools the School of Design, the School of Painting and the School of Sculpture,with a Preliminary School, which includes an Upper and a Lower

Division. In ths way, the College provides for the study of the Fine Arts and of the Decorative Arts and Crafts, and for the training of Art teachers eligible for employment in post-primary schools. The College has working arrangements with University ColIege Dublin and with the Bolton Street School of

Technology. It olso maintains liaison with the National Library,the National Museum, and the National Gellery of Ireland. Outside Dublin,whole-time day course and part-time evening courses are provided ay the Crawford School of Art, Cork, and the Schools of Art in Limerick and Waterford. To foster the study of the

History of Art, Miss Sarah Purser and Sir John Purser Griffith established,in 1934,two equal funds, one to be administered by Trinity College,and the other by University College Dublin, the income from which provides Travelling Scoolarships. and prizes to be competed for every year, alrtenately in each University. Extra-mural courses are given at

University College Dublin,which College also provides courses leading to a degree in the History of European Painting taken with another subject. Lectures are also provided, mainly for post-primary students, in the National Gallery. THE CONQUERING NORMANS. Edward the Confessor died in January , 1066.On Christmas Day in the same year

William the Conqueror was crowned king in Westminster Abbey. It had been a terrible year for Englishmen. From the very beginning of it they had feared that evil things were going to happen, and when a comet began to flame in the sky , early in the summer , their fears were increased. To all Englishmen it seemed to foretell defeat. And defeat came upon them when

Duke William landed at Pevensey , in Sussex ,and advanced to Hastings. King Harold rushed to meet him , but he and many of his faithful thanes were slain. The bravest of them gathered to make a last desperate fight round the English standarts ,and when they fell the days of English liberty were over for a long period.On the very spot where Harold and his men made their last stand the

Norman conqueror built Battle Abbey to commemorate his victory. If you go there today, you will be shown the place where Harold fell. It was a hard time for Englishmen. As William marched slowly by a round- about way to London, his men plundered the village so terribly that it took them many years to recover. His soldiers searched everywhere for food and all the things that

an army needs. Villagers, flying in terror to the woods, saw their cattle driven off,their stored corn and hay carted away,and their houses burnt. This was the way in which William hoped to terrify Englishmen into submission. He was successful. On Christmas Day,1066,he was crowned king of the English by the Archbishop of York in Westminster Abbey.

Straightway he began to drive English nobles from their lands,for he said they had treacherously fought against their true king. And in their places he put Normans, who despised the English, and treated them cruelly. So in the year 1067,if you had been travelling about then, you would have seen parties of Normans riding through the country-side to take possession of the lands that

William had given them in returm for their help at Hastings.These men , of couse,had Norman names, and if you look at a map of England today, you will see that some villages are still called by the names of the Norman lords to whom William gave them, for example, Norton Mandeville in Essex.Some English- men nowadays have

Norman names, such as Harcout, Montgomery, Mantague.For a long time after the battle of Hastings no one who wished to be considered a gentleman spoke Englisheven little boys at school learnt their lessons in French, so that, when they grew up, they might be able to keep company with the rulers of the land and pretend they were Normans. Let us imagine that we are visiting a village when it is new master rides

into it.Our old English master, our thane, is dead, for he went off with his soldiers when Harold called for his help against the foreigner, and fell beside his king on the day of the battle of Hastings.All though the winter the villagers have starved, for they have had little corn meat to live on,since William,s army went past on it is way to London.Their houses are in a ruinous condition, And the very barns have gone, for some of them were

burnt others pulled down to supply fuel for Norman camp fires.The old mill wheel has not turned since the village was sacked, for even the dam, which supplied the water, was hacked to bits by the soldiers.So when the new master rides into the village, he sees lean sterving men, women and children.There are fire-blackened ruins of English homes all around.Some small patches of growing corn can be seen, for even in starvation time

men must save some seed for the next crop. But the fields are small compared with what they were. How we hate this new-comerHow we should like to take vengeance on him and his men for all our sufferings, for all the fathers brothers who will never return from HastingsBut we dare do nothing, say nothing.We can see that this man is no coward, for he rides into the middle of us, looks all straight in the face.Rising in his stirrups, he calls in

French I would have you know that King William has given me these lands that you are my tenants now. Do your part faithfully, I shall do mine.But if any man checks me in my just rights, let him beware.No Englishman understands a word, but everybody suspects what the speaker means well enough. He makes his way to the thanes house, there he meets the window her daughter accompanied by the steward.He explains the lady that a small piece of land out of her husbands estate will be left to her.

She knows that she will be very poor for the rest of her days, but she is to proud to ask for anything more and withdraws in silence with her daughter. Then the Norman turns to the steward and calls for his accounts.He hopes to see out all the old thanes rights carefully set there how he received so much hay every year from one man, so much corn from another, and so much meat from a third and how

Aelfgar and men like him work once a week for him all the year round and do extra work in harvest and how Gurth and his equals do not work for the thane, but pay so much food. When the accounts are brought, he listens carefully as the stewards axplains each entry, for he wishes to know exactly how much the land that the king has given him is worth. The steward, of couse, says that the value has gone down very much in the last year.

A talk follows till far on into the night, and many questions are put by the master. How much land is there suitable for ploughing How much of it did the old thane keep for his own use How many bushels of corn come from each acre Do the villagers know how to manure and drain the land properly Is there any grassland that could be made to grow extra supplies of corn For, says lord, my soldiers must have plenty to eat.

Yes, says the steward, there is much land fit for the purpose.But do you propose to make the villagers work on this and do their other work as well Remember, Sir, that there are fewer of them than there were. The Norman replies that he intends his villagers to do not only this, but much more besides. Indeed he goes so far as to say that the men like

Gurth, who never worked but only paid food, shall now both pay and work, for more land must be cultivated. And he adds that he intends to increase the amounts of meat, hay, eggs, cheese, butter and other things that the villagers pay. So the stewards returns home in a thoughtful and unhappy state, for he sees hard times coming for his friends and does not like telling them about the extra work that they will have to do. The Norman also goes to bed, but not until he has gone round the house with his chief follower,

and posted sentinels for he has no wish to be murdered in his sleep by his new servants, as has happened to some of his friends.He and his followerds do not thing much of the old house. The old English thanes did not make their houses strong for defence, for they had nothing to fear from their villagers. But the Norman saysWe must have a safer place than this to sleep in, or our throats wiil all be cut some night.So the steward wiil hear if another piece of work for his friends in the

village to do. In the morning the Norman gets up early and goes on horseback round his land accompanied by the steward who listens to all his plans. He is told to have the mill dam repaired by next harvest, and a new whell put in. Then the master looks round for a position for a new house. He means to make it by throwing up a mound of earth and building a wooden tower on top of it. It is to be surrounded by a wall of earth and a ditch.

He marks out the boundaries at once and orders the steward to have the digging commenced. Next he goes to the woods to look for timber. After the inspection he saysLet me hear axes at work here when I come round tommorow. As he rides home he sees the old village church. The roof lets the rain in, and some of the timber of which the building is made rotting away. He indignantly says its more like a brokendown stable than a house of

God and swears in the name of Saint Valerie who sent the Normans a fair wind for their invasion, that he will build a stone church. He has not been long back at the hall before Gurth and his friends ask to see him. When they are admitted to the hall, they say they have heard the word that is going round, how every villagers, big and little, is to work on the new fields, which the lord is going to fence in, and is

to pay more food than ever before. They say that this is against the custom of the village. They paid food to the old thanes, because King Alfred ordered their forefathers to do so. But they never laboured like serfs on any mans land. They are free men, and when they have paid their dues, as King Alfred ordered, no man can ask them for more.

This bold speech has a terrible result. The new lord rises from his seat. His eyes are blazing with rage, and the villagers fear nothing less than death at the hands of the surrounding soldiers. Custom the master shouts, Custom You talk to me about custom as though it ruled all. I and my friends won this land by the sword from you and traitors like you, who were in arms against

your lawful King William. Traitors lie at the mercy of their conquerors and must be punished for their treachery. Custom will not protect you. Get you gone. Soldiers Clear the hall. For many days there is rage in the hearts of the villagers, for the smaller men like Aelfgar are ground to poverty by the new lord. Thus they feel the results of the Norman Conquest.

All English feel them as well, and for five years to come there are angry rebellions in different parts of the land. University Education There are 44 universities not counting the Open University in Britain. Although the Goverment is responsible for providing about 80 per cent of universities income it does not control their work or teaching nor does it have direct dealings with the universities.The grants are distributed by the

Secretary of State for Education and Science. The English universities are Aston Birmingham, Bath, Birmingham, Bradford Bristol, Brunel London, Cambridge, City London, Durham, East Anglia ,Essex, Exeter, Hull, Keele, Kent at Centerbury, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester,

Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, Saford, Sheffield, Southhampton, Surrey, Sussex, Warwick and York. The federated University of Wales includes five university colleges, the Welsh National School of Medicine, and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.The Scottish universities are

Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Belfast, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Stirling, and Strathclyde Glasgow.In Northen Ireland there is Queens University, Belfast, and the New University of Ulster in Coleraine. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the

Scottish Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the other universities were founded in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. There are five other institutions where the work is of university standard the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology the two postgraduate business school which

are supported jointly by industry and the Goverment - the Manchester Business School and the London Graduate School of Business Studies, associated with the London School of Economics and the Imperial College of Science and Technology Cranfield Inctitute of Technology for mainly postgraduate work in aeronautics and other subjects

and the Royal College of Art. Cambridge My coming to Cambridge has been an unusual experience. From whatever country one comes as a student one cannot escape the influence of the Cambridge traditions - and they go back so far Here, perhaps, more than anywhere else, I have felt at one and the same time the Past, the Present and even the Future. Its easy to see and the old grey stone buildings how the past

has moulded the present and how the present is giving shape to the future. So let me tell you a little of what this University town looks like and how it came to be here at all. The story of the University begins, so far as I know, in 1209 when several hundred students and scholars arrived in the little town of Cambridge after having walked 60 miles from Oxford. As was the custom then, they had joined themselves into a

Universitas of Society - the word University, like the word College, meant originally a society of people with a common employment it was only later it came to be associated with scholarship. These students were all churchmen and had been studying in Oxford at that citys well-known schools. It was a hard life at Oxford for there was constant trouble between the townsfolk and the students.

Then one day a student accidentally killed a man of the town. The Mayor arrested three other students, who were innocent, and by order of King John who was quarrelling with the Church and knew that the death of three clergymen would annoy it they were put to death by hanging. In protest, all the students moved elsewhere, some coming to Cambridge and so the new University began. Before long there were new quarrel with the townsfolk, for

the University was anxious to be independent of the Town, and the Town was equally anxious for authority over the new student population. Town and Gown battles were frequent. The boarding-houses and shopkeepers cheated the students, who very soon organized themselves under an elected leader called a Chancellor, and he fixed prices that should be paid.

Gradually the University gained control. Side by side with the fight for freedom from Town rule was another for liberty from Church rule, until by 1500 the University was its own master at last. Of course there were no Colleges in those early days and student life was very different from what it is now. Students were of all ages and came from every where.

Those from the same part of the country tended to group together and these groups called Nations still exist, by the way, at some European Universities. The students were armed some even banded together to rob the people of the countryside. Gradually, the idea of the College developed and in 1284 Peterhouse the oldest College in Cambridge, was founded.

Life in College was strict students were forbidden to play games, to sing except sacred music, to hunt or fish or even to dance. University Education There are 44 universities not counting the Open University in Britain. Although the Goverment is responsible for providing about 80 per cent of universities income it does not control their work or teaching nor does it have direct dealings with the universities.The grants are distributed by the

Secretary of State for Education and Science. The English universities are Aston Birmingham, Bath, Birmingham, Bradford Bristol, Brunel London, Cambridge, City London, Durham, East Anglia ,Essex, Exeter, Hull, Keele, Kent at Centerbury, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester,

Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, Saford, Sheffield, Southhampton, Surrey, Sussex, Warwick and York. The federated University of Wales includes five university colleges, the Welsh National School of Medicine, and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.The Scottish universities are

Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Belfast, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Stirling, and Strathclyde Glasgow.In Northen Ireland there is Queens University, Belfast, and the New University of Ulster in Coleraine. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the

Scottish Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the other universities were founded in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. There are five other institutions where the work is of university standard the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology the two postgraduate business school which

are supported jointly by industry and the Goverment - the Manchester Business School and the London Graduate School of Business Studies, associated with the London School of Economics and the Imperial College of Science and Technology Cranfield Inctitute of Technology for mainly postgraduate work in aeronautics and other subjects

and the Royal College of Art. Cambridge My coming to Cambridge has been an unusual experience. From whatever country one comes as a student one cannot escape the influence of the Cambridge traditions - and they go back so far Here, perhaps, more than anywhere else, I have felt at one and the same time the Past, the Present and even the Future. Its easy to see and the old grey stone buildings how the past

has moulded the present and how the present is giving shape to the future. So let me tell you a little of what this University town looks like and how it came to be here at all. The story of the University begins, so far as I know, in 1209 when several hundred students and scholars arrived in the little town of Cambridge after having walked 60 miles from Oxford. As was the custom then, they had joined themselves into a

Universitas of Society - the word University, like the word College, meant originally a society of people with a common employment it was only later it came to be associated with scholarship. These students were all churchmen and had been studying in Oxford at that citys well-known schools. It was a hard life at Oxford for there was constant trouble between the townsfolk and the students.

Then one day a student accidentally killed a man of the town. The Mayor arrested three other students, who were innocent, and by order of King John who was quarrelling with the Church and knew that the death of three clergymen would annoy it they were put to death by hanging. In protest, all the students moved elsewhere, some coming to Cambridge and so the new University began. Before long there were new quarrel with the townsfolk, for

the University was anxious to be independent of the Town, and the Town was equally anxious for authority over the new student population. Town and Gown battles were frequent. The boarding-houses and shopkeepers cheated the students, who very soon organized themselves under an elected leader called a Chancellor, and he fixed prices that should be paid.

Gradually the University gained control. Side by side with the fight for freedom from Town rule was another for liberty from Church rule, until by 1500 the University was its own master at last. Of course there were no Colleges in those early days and student life was very different from what it is now. Students were of all ages and came from every where.

Those from the same part of the country tended to group together and these groups called Nations still exist, by the way, at some European Universities. The students were armed some even banded together to rob the people of the countryside. Gradually, the idea of the College developed and in 1284 Peterhouse the oldest College in Cambridge, was founded.

Life in College was strict students were forbidden to play games, to sing except sacred music, to hunt or fish or even to dance. The Shirkov Parish. To the north - west of Tver among The Valdai Hills, which are covered with confferous and deciduous forest, there is a long chain offour lakes, formed from the river Volga the Sterzh, Vseloog, Peno and Volgo. These are the upper reaches of the great

Russian River Volga. Until the middle of the 19th centory the river was not abundant in water, but in 1843 a dam was built below the present Volgo lake which caused this formation of lakes The dam was recon structed in 1943. The Upper Volga is interesting not only for its picturesque suroundings but also for its reach history. In early prehistoric times - mainly during the Stone Age and the Broze Age - this area was already populated by hunters and fishermen.

The ancient Pinns were the first inhabitants of this territory for many centuries. From the 9th century the Slav tribe, Lreeveech lived here, but from the 12th century onwards the Novgorod Slav community was the main population . This land has witnessed many important events of our history such as internal feuds between Princes Khan Batus invasion and the long and stubborn struggle against

Lithuanian and Polish invaders. The oldest paths of trading ran across this territory. The land knew periods of flourishing as well as periods of devastation. Nowdays it is a picturesque region ideal for rest and tourism. Many old relicts and monuments of various ages have been well preserved. One of the most beautiful spots of the Upper Volga is on the

Vseloog lake . In ancient times there were settlements and a heathen temple here. Today one can see the Shirkov Parish. For three centuries it has been standing in full harmony with the rivers, boundless fore4st and vast skies. Nature and architecture in harmony. The origin of the name of grave - yard is unknown. The unique Shirkiov ar- chitecture was created by nameless masters.

In an old contract, drawn up by the carpenters team, who were to build the church, there was the following recommendation Build a temple as large and beautiful as your senses command These words show the character of Russian wooden architecture at its best. The ability of our ancestors to select the sites for their settlements and churches is also well known. The wooden Ioan Predtechy church is the oldest monument in the

Shirkon Pa - rish. It is considered to be finest piece of national wooden architecture. The best traditions of Russian carpenters are exemplified in this masterpiece. It is a peasants spacimen of beauty born in daily work and in permanent contact with the field, forest, rivers and village houses. Creatness and simplicity , power and elegance go together simultaneously. The Ioan Predtechy church is the most interesting wooden tier church of the tetrehedron on a tetrehedron

style. As far back as 1887 it was noted that as for Russian architecture, the exterior of the church is unusual and of great interest. This style of church was popular in former times. Thus we known about the existance of similar churches in the Nilowa Stolbenskaya her - mitage from the middle of the 17th centory.

According to the certifecate compiled by the priest of Shirkov church Illynsky, in respose to a census, offered by the Emperor of the Archaeological Comission of the Academy of Arts in 1880s on the basis of the clerge register which unfortunately has not been preserved, the church is dated from 1694.