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COLLECTANEA

D E

REBUS HIBERNICIS.

VOL. 11.

CONTAIVINO

No. V. Of the Literature I No. VIIL An Effay on the

of the Irilh Nation in Heathenifh Times.

No. VL An Eflay on the Study of Irifli Antiqui- ties.

No. VII. Druidifm revived.

Antiquity of the Irifli Language.

No. IX. The Hiftory and Antiquities of Irifli- town and Kilkenny.

WITH COPPER PLATES.

DUBLIN; LUKE WHITE.

M,vcc,Lxxxyu

■ ■ • --

w

<:*

\J.Z

Lb

f

CONTENTS

OF VOL. II.

No. V. I. Of the Literature of the Irifh Nation in

Tlmes^ - -> Page 3

2* Fragment of the Brehon Lawsj « 6

3. Gavd-Law of the Irifh explained, - 30

4. Literature of the Iriih after the Eftablifhment of Chrifiianity, ----- 41

5. An Inquiry into the firft Inhabitants of Ireland, by Lieut. Col. Charles Vallanceyj - - 56

No. VI. I . An Eflay on the Study of Irifh Antiqui- ties, - . - - 83

2. Diflertation on the Round Towers, - 117

3. Memoirs of Dunamafe and Shean-Caflle, in the Queen's County, by Edvard Ledwich, L. L. B. 1 45

No. VU. I. Druidifm revived, - • 161

2. Of the Origin and Language of the Irifh| and of the Learning of the Ihniids, by William Beau- ford, A.M. - - - 218

No. Vm. I. An EflSiy on the Antiquity of the Irifh Language, by Lieut. Col. Charles Vallahcey, 252

2« Remarks on the Eflay, ... 337

No. IX. The Hiflory and Antiquities of Irifhtown and Kilkenny, by Edward Ledwich, L.L.B. 349

%

CoileBlanea de Rebus Hibermcis.

NUMBER V.

Of the Literature of the Irish Nation in Heathenish Times.

Translation of a Fragment of the Brbhon Laws; or rather, a Glossary of the Brshon Terms.

The Gatel Law of the antient'lRiSH ezpl^dned.

Of the Literature of the Irish after the Eftablilh- mentof Christianity*

An Enqjjiry into the First Inhabitants of Ireland.

The Whole intended as an Essay towards famiihing fome Light for future Enqviribs into the Origin, Laws, and Mavnbils of the Ancient Irish.

ByLiEur. Co£. CHARLES VALLANCET.

DUBLIN: [.UKE WHITE.

lf|DCC|tXXXVIIt

y o *!• m

■RIOHT WOWOVRABLe

WILLIAM BURtOi^

AND

yONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVy COUNCIL «F IRELAND,

SIR,

It is no battery, i>mt an uncontefied truth to aver, that you have been moft emi- nently ufeful to this kingdom, in encourag- ing the fine arts and manufadures. The cxtenfive fhare of literature and difcerning judgment you enjoy, would not permit the curious monuments of Irifh antiquity to pafs unnoticed j at your o\yn jwi vate expence very able artifls have been employed to make fuch a Colledion of Drawings of thefe Monuments as give infinite pleafure to every lover of antiquity to behold. Permit me, $ir, to join the public voice, in hoping, that

B 2 th$

DEDICATION.

the fame fpirit which has led you to this expence and trouble, may induce you to a publication c^ this Colledion of Drawings, which have juftly entitled you to be re- corded as the Refiorer of Iridi Antiquities ; -and I requefi that you will be pleafed to ac- cept of this Dedication of the Firft Number of the Second Volume of the Collectan e a DB Rebus Hibernicis from,

S I R,

Your moft obedient, moft humble fervant.

r

CHARLES VALLANCEY,

k ^ .. rf

O P T M E

LITERATURE

or x H f

IRISH NATION

I N

HEATHENISH TIMES.

A

MONGST all the proofs that can be ex- hibited of the exiftcnce of letters and learning ia pagan times, no one can be fo much depended OD, as the producing of certain works, that were really written by pagan authors, and which ezifled before St. Patrick's arrival in this iiland : Such a proof would doubtlefs folve the queftion propofed, in a decifive manner. The dans or poems given us by Keating to atteft the hiftories of remote times, far- from affifting us on the occafion, rather have appeared to many as proofs againfl us, becaufe the words, the ftyle, and the very poetic drefs of thefe poems, ftiow them to be of modem date and invention. Moft of that hiftorian's poetic quotations regarding the Belgian and Daruan colonies, the lia fail, &c. are taken from poems that, by the hook of Lccan, are attri- buted

6 LITER ATURE OF TBB IRISH

buted to Eeoha o Floiny who was a chriftian poet*

From the difcovery of this truth, which neither

Keating nor any of our literati did take proper

care to explain, the enemies of our antiquities

cried up viftory, faymg that thefe antient fafts

had only modern writers for their firft inventors;,

but let them proceed with lefs pwecipitation, and

confider the true nature of things. Thelrifh Chrit-

tians when they began ta compofe verfe% after the

manner of the deibhi or ckn direchy which of all

others exifting in either our, or any other language

I am acquainted with, was the moft compendious,

and for this reafon the moft proper for writing

hiftory, laid themfelves out for recordingthc fadts

of remote antiquity, as well as chronology, &c.

in fuch kind of verfes. And thus the Chrifti^as

bad io an abridged manner laid before tboa the

lives and memorable a£tioas of the priiices^ tiie

years of their reign, &c. and hence Keiatiog or

^y other writer may very fecurdy cite one of thefe

antient Chriftian poets, for attefting facis bdonging

to beathenifh times, juft as he might cite the £KQe

poet for attefting fa^ belongiog tp the Affynaov'

Median, Per£an, or Roman empires^; the priacir

p^ revolutions of all which ftates have beea oikea

faithfully recoixkd by thefe Irifh po^s, aiul soaiiy

are to he met with in the parchoo^nt maaufcripts

fiiU exifting. The truth is, it was much eaJier to

cite a verfe of four lines, each line conftfting only

of eight fyllables, wher<ejn three or four fafts may

be recorded, than to have the trouble of citing an

old pallage in profe, fuch as it was before Chrif-

tianity, which on account of its obfeurity and

imcouth

m HEATHENISH TFMES. 7

HncoQ^ drdfs, muft become difagreeable to the modem reader, who fought for deganqr of ftyle, jAain language and- pleafure in his reading. And hence, as it would be highly contradiftory to att good reafon, for a man to conclude, that a h€t ' or revolution, happening in any of the afore&fd great empres, had for it^ oi^y authority an Irifli Ghriftian poet, becaufe fuch a faft or revolution was really defcribed by him, fo in like manner it is repu^iant to good fenfe, that a Ghriftian poet fhoidd be afligned as the cmly author for fadls which happeaed in heathenilh times, becaufe thefe fsiGtB^ are recorded in his verfes ; the leafofi he records in his poetry the fads relating to thofe empires of the world, is, becaufe hie read the hif^ tory of them, and underflood the language where- in the fa£b were contained, and by a like reafon dotb he record in verfe, the fa^ regarding his own country, becaufe he is well acquainted witU the hiftory of it, and underftands his native lan- guage toperfedion.

In my humble opinion the verfes of fuch poets deferve the greatefl credit, iincetheylay before us the moft abfurd relations and ridioilous tenets of our pagan anceftors, as well as the moft certain and well conneded points of their do£^rine and hiflory. This could not proceed from a want of difcemment and good fenfe in them, fince they (how by other wiitings, they were well acquainted with foreign hiftory, poetry andoratory, and con^ fequently had as good a right as we have to diftin- guifh between palpable error and truth, or plaufi- IS^-i and fince they relate thefe palpable errors and fabuk>us ftory, it appears, their true motive

foy

8 LITERATURE of thb IRISH

for fo doing was to hand down thefe accoimtSy jufl as they found them in onr pagan hiftory, with lincerity and candour- The Chriftian religion de- jives one advantage from their fidelity viz. that we can by that means take a retrograde view of pagan blindnefs and mifery^

Having ihus offered my thoughts hi vindication of thefe verfes, which I fnppofeto have beencom- pofed by Chriftian poets, celebrated in their times, (for I know what little dependance ought to be had on the verfification of our modern bards) I Iball now pi-oceed to give fbme clear proofs of our having had the ufe of letters before Chriftianity^ The pi oof I fpeak of is the exhibition of a frag- ment of a Code of Laws, which, I think, every ju- dicious reader, who is verled in Irifh antiquities, will judge to have been the produft of very remote times, much higher than the fifth or fixth centuries. This fragment contains twelve folios, andbegins- at folio (ixty-four, the lixty-three preceding were miffing ; and here I nmft beg the reader to remark, the diiiierence between the letter of the law and the explication of the faki law. I maintain the fiifl is of pagan inflitution, and that the fecond is the work of one or many Chriftian Jurifconfults, who hiter- preted this law, and applied it to particular cafes, according to the intention of the Chriftianlegiflator. This collefiion was partly made in the time of Donal mac Aoiia inac Anmircch^ who was a Chriftian princey hy C^ndfiiela mac Ail lily called L fuppofe Ceandfaela nafogluma ; and partly by Aicill who lived after Ccancljaela's time, (on the environs of Tara) and after the time of king CormaCy for he

was

IN

HEATHENISH TIMES.

^t-as cotcmporary with Carbre Uffeachair fon of GrmflC. Neverthclefs the work is attributed to GarrnaCy as it was begun by him and ended in the reign of his fon Carbre ; fo that the Irifh lawyers who compiled and delivered this code of laws, were AkUl who lived in the reigns of Cormac and of his fon Carbre, and Ceandfae/afon of JWilj who ilouriihed in the re^ of Dmal fon of Hugh mac Amdrech. No doubt but that thefe laws were coIIe6bd fay the order of thofe Iriih princes, juft as we knoi/^lhe Roman emperor Juftmian I. who had the Roman laws collected, by the care and labour of ten able Jurifconfults, dire&ed in chief by the celebrated TreboniariuSy calling this coUec- tioQ the Jujlirmn Code ; he alfo caufed the fcattered dedfions of his judges and magiftrates, reduced to the number of fifty, to be called digeja or jHin- (kda, to all which he added his four books of in- ftitutes, which are an abridgment of the text of all the Roman laws ;■ and laftly he publiftied his own laws which he called novel/a ; this compilationhas procured for th^t emperor an immortal name.

Our Irilh Chriflian legiflators took the fame me- thod with the Chriftian Jurifconfult Trebonianus andhis illuilrious afliftants called^z;2/^^r^<r or pro- fieflbrs and interpretei-s, for in the preface to the FandeHa^ they are ftiled t*.» m^^f fc3«(r*«A#i«, I mean Tbecphi/us and Doroiheus, who explained not only the laws of the Chriftian emperors from the year 527, when Juftmian fucceeded hb luicle Jufiin in the empire, up to the reign of Cmjaniinethe Great, but alfo to the times of Ju/ius and Angujlus Cafar.

They evenintroducc the laws of the fenate and the

PUbipta

la PRAGMEMT OT THE

Fbbi^Aa or deciiions of the popular tribuae% and ibxnetimes the laws of the twelve tables; all which wei€ of pagan mftitutioo, though direded and compiled by a Chiiftian emperor and Chrif* tian Jurifconfults.

Thefe IriHi princes, feeing the laws of the Iriih nation. difperJed in many pieces, thought it ex> pedient, both for the public order and ooGonomy crfthe ftate, and for the fafety and comfort of each individual, to imitetbem all together m one code.

The FRAGMENT begins by the iawfeationof the name of God thus^ in ainm DE Jo; jnft like the Juilinian code, which begins in nomine D. i^fifi J^ft* Cbrijti; and the firft folio contains an hktorical prelude to the law, as I have jyft now obfeirvedj viz,

Ix>€C don Uubarfa The place where thl? Daire lubran, agus ahnr book was Written was ibr, do aimlcr DomnaU Derry in the dmes of mac Aeda mac Ainmi- Donal, fenof Aod, fon of vexiu 3CUS pearfa do, Ainmirec, by the perfon Ceand&elamac Aillila. called Ce^adfada fon o€

Aiima. « ,

This Donald fon of Aod, fucceeded his brother Conalen who died in 605 ; he was cotemporary with Fingin mac Aod, king of Munfter, who in 6o4.fucceeded Amalgamac Eanna; thefaid Donal according to our annals Uew Seachnaffach, fon of Garvan king of Tiro wen, whooppofed him in 607;

Carbre Liffcachar fucceeded his father Cormac jn 279, his father dying of the bone of a falmon which ftuck in his throat ; in 260, he fought the battles of Bear Lochlein, Limerick and Greine,and

alfo

BRZHON LAW& »i

alio of Ard£eart ; hei&iaid alfo tohavekiBediii tingle combat^ ia this yeit, twelye Lagenias pnncesiy or Galamh Aenfir, and wae IbaniOied by the UkDnians the year foUewing, and was^ not able to recover the royed feat of £man for four jaa, when at length he wa« vi£tor, and bamfh- ed the Ultonians into the ifle of Man. Thea£bUows this ancient veriein praifeof IXnml : He in i&o ar nad bufid This is the man who aiarCongal in a gae ; proved vi6k)riouS) de- feating Ckmgal in batde : RtDonohoaiinafirinde Who truly feu by thjp odr biuud madm ar in : fword of Donai : An firen rias anfiren. Fbr he conquered him ia lie in f :o ar nad buaid* a pitched battle, and the

faithful prince flew Ae

unfaithful. Saibne geilt do-dul re He was the man who yet geltacht. i. ar facaib. was vidor over Suibne

the geilt who became

crazy. Do laidib & do fgelaib He left after him many agairfiti each o iinille. poems and flories for the

ufe and eiitertainment of

pofterity. It is ^n relate<f of him that he was educated at Tuam Dercain, at the meeting of three roads^ centrical to the hoafes of three fuad or virtnofit ▼iz'. a genealogift, a poet, and a fai leigind ; his capacity and memory are praifed, and concludei^ that whatever he learned by day from his three teachers, he carefully wrote down at night in caik Ihtbary a chalk book.

AccOcd''^'

1% FRAGMENT OF THE

According to Tigemach, Ciufaela, ftiled b) \nmfapiensj died in the year 679.

Tlien follows concerning Cormac and Carbre Li£feachair his fon, and the hiftory of Cormac's being blinded is mentioned thus :

Ceallach fon of Cormac ravifhed a Lagenian lady of quality, daughter to Solar fon of Aitcorb, in her father's houfe at Rath Aedha in Leinfter ^ (bme time after Aongus Gaibuaibnech pafling tluough Connaught, went into the houfe of a wo- man of the free ftate of Luigne, and forcibly drank milk there ro cait battide in ar tigin ; upon which ihe told him, he had better revenge liimfelf on Ceallach for violating his brother Solar's honour, than infringe on the liberty of that flate ; which reproach made fo deep an impreflion on the mind of Aongus, that he immediately went home, put on his armour, and after the fetting of the fun, met Cormac and his fon Ceallach, when at one Wow he put Ceallach to death, and with his armed elbow ftruck Cormac blind ; but the famous Aicil ]2|erformed a cure for his eye.

It is then related that Cormac's part of this book is arafe{tr & na blai^ but that Cinfaela's part is the reft of the book.

Then the perfon of Cinfaela is commended in verfe thus :

ba perfa aireda tra Cin- A moft illuftrious perfo- faela mac Ailila nage indeed was Ciufaela ]

fon of Aillil iar nafg oUtaid ifimcath Who after fubduing the he do rigne duil rofga- Ultonians in battle, com- dach. pofed folios of chiming

poetry.

It

B R E H O N LAWS- 13

It is then mentioned that the LsLtinJuum ticet is in Iriih called deiniin dilmam; that its indiredi figni- fication is called by him buna atrj; that coUcben means common, cUles proper, and ruidlts entire, fafeand (bund; that there are eight common terms of the laws called ocht nernailU coiichena, viz.

INETG or PO^GARCAILE, LANFRAC or COMRAILE, LIATHFRAC Of TMANFOT, AITHGIN or IN IMDXITHBIR, TORBA,

Slan,

dkithbtr torba,

FODLAIDXTU.

The reft of this folio is effaced.

The next page begins a kind of exordium to the work thus, a/lach on aihairfor Ebha &f toltnugad do Ihbafria^ i. e. the ferpent prefented the forbid- den fruit to Eve, and Eve confented to receive it. Iwflriflj, is the prohibition of a legiflator. Comjugud do Adam fria Jlaiarta ummmde^ i. e. Eve delivered it to Adam in difobedience to the Trinity ; and hence it is plain, fays the author, that when a man knows a crime in virtue of the law eftablifhed, though he be ignorant of the penalty enjoined by it, he may be punifhed according to the full mea- Ibre ; is m Jin is folios 0 biasfs in cinaidac duine gen coroibfs na herce con adhainfs lanfrach^ and hence by a greater right, when the crime or fault is known and the penalty too, there is no matter for deception, ni damna mtalUiid.

Etgr rian etgen, no cin ria cinatd, a crime for a crime; means if a man commits a

crime

24 FRAGMENT OF THE

ctime he 18 to fufier kac it, and then the law cnk», -but Ladfer for ezainple called ^r^ toirgiecby can -sever have the benefit of this law, becaufe his jfHiniflmient will have do end ganjifo^wn; and this tnay be -called iar neifjpy^finj that is, ai^ the pa- niihment the crime remains imputable ; the Dame may be' faid of Eve for having eat of the forbid- den fruit, tomailt torad in craind tmgairte^

EisLiR FODLA EiTGiJE^., Cia ler no cia Un der- nalaib fodeilitear an^tgen comlorlealan in cintaid; i. e. how many fold and how extenfive is the crime and how many ways it can be diftinguilhed.

NiH ANDs usoN, mcaus that whatever is^oiie by advice has the fame force with the aft ttfelf.

AC£ATHAIR, NO DOTRISCE AN AIRSAM CSA-

TARivA DONA HuiLiB AiRMHE. The numbcr four excels all other numbers on account of the elements,o( the four cardinal points, and for many -other realbns, fo duatthe proof of four perfons is • be)v>nd difpute; thie interpretation is in Latin thus, quatermis praecellit omnibus numeris in clla^ i. e. the univerfe (i^).

.COMRATTE,

(iv) Here we may take notice, that the IriQi glo/Ikry tidopts the allegorical method of reafoning, whereof the ■Ptaioaic philofophers >Krere extremely fond. CArnuius the ^Uic haft left us a treatife>on allegorical interpretations, from which, and from his ftudy of rlatonic philofophy, he is -thought to have borrowed hismethod of ^legorizing feveral paifs^es of holy wril. bee Porphyrias spud Euiebium Hid. £cclef. lib. 6. ch. 19s Many of the prunittTC fathers fell mto the fame method ; S. Irenxus reafons much after the fame manner of our Irifiimaa on the number of four evan- •gelilU \ -he fays, *' there mufi be four gofpels, and no more, from the four winds and four corners of the earth.** As that kind of reafoning was acceptable to the learned Gen- tile?,

B R E H O JM LAWS. 15

GoMRAnrjE, -means the oorpond prefence of a perfon, which is to be known by the five fenfes {ceadfad ctdrp no 5 Jianfib) that agree and join to- geder in the perpetration of a crime; it may regard the witnefs whofe bare recital that he heard the M will not fuifice. The book of Sufamiah ad- vertifes us of this neceflary precaution. The fe- crecy of the fad ihould alfo be attended to {clothe onanaid) and which of the two contending parties did firft make his declaration {coir ciamad don Ian- hd mo ro aijhed artus.)

AcilSANFOT, or AMBI UAIT, Or AIMSOLACH

UAiT, means that an ignorant man^ who is like a beaft, ihould not be permitted to atteft any thing, for thus fayeth Fearmuvan mac £chlan. bid cadi cafaitchusifint All people afk what is the isbrechtciamtiagaitoig fignification of ^/; it is

a riddle commonly pro- pofed to youth, coria de ata fot faiteach I fay that j^ fignifies ien- tf^ anf hot anfaitech. fible and anftaty fooliOi,

nonfenfical. ToRBA or ToiRB£o, lucans the fenetnce of a judge which exempts the criminal from further ap- prefaenfions, after he has paid the fine. Some are of opinion it means {Udr) confufion or fhame, or elfe terror to him who does not fatisfy the damages

he

tiles, for whofe inftmdion they wrote, it is no wonder if our Chriftian dolors frequently adopted it. S. Aufiin to prove that ChriR was to hxft twelve apoftles, ufes a very Amiiar argument* for fays he, '* the gofjpei was to be preached in the foar comers of the world in the name of the Trinity, and three tiaies four makes twelve/'

FRAGMENT OF THE

he has done ; tainige don beo ris na hidar feic iar ndenain fogla.

AcASESBA, L e. Uais bko, or happy is he who fu£fers a lofs unjufUy ; It is applied thus : Blefled is the man who feeks no compenfation from his ofienderSy and bleiTed is he who fatisfies after having done the damage, icas iar denamfogla. And it is alfo ufed to fignify the complete number of witnefles, required by law for certain crimes ; for example, in cafes of murder or robbery (fagla) the number four is required, yet in fome cafes, two may be fufficient, and this particularly in the cafes of etgen comraiiej and iorha.

Of the fear compairte and carady from the fourth Divifion, which comes under the term of Etgin.

Cl AN ANMAND NA CINA SIN, ' Or FODAIL

ANAMAND ciNAiD. What is the true name of the crime, ijt cin and in gnimugaJy it is cin^ which confifts in the a6l, though cin be an etgen. There are four diviiions of etgen^ and ten etgens.

Nl HANDSA ON FAIIX, Or DO FAIRGEANP AFAILL SMZACHT HEATHA OTHRUSA, mcanS

that if a man be woimded in the' body through malice, the aggrelTor muft get the wound healed {as fiull do gan an toihrus do denam.)

EisLKis or ATLSE rEASA, mcaus a crime com- mitted with a full and malicious intent ; from^j Ids pr from ailje leafa.

Elgnas is the knowledge of the thing done or doing, whereby a perfon receives a wound or da- mage.

Anfis

BRttiON LAWS.

>7

AsFis means igtiorance j fuch, for example, as the blind cafis^ (dall Urchur) viz. over a houfe, not kuowing VI ho is on the other fide ; through a wood when in full leaf; and through a field of ftanding com ; thefe are the three dall urclmir : tar tic fo tukle ; darfdfo duille ; tar gort airbha.

Imr AiCHNE means one out of his natural fenfes, fear rechta in ecofe dilftg. i . ime do merad aitlme.

Ti;cAip or togaiKm, fignifies a procefs in law.

TuRTAiT or ToiRTEiT, is a place where the trefpafs is done.

TiDRADus, isa perfeft proof of the faft, called cm na himana.

FocHUiN, is a criiiie committed in anger or paffion.

AcAis, is the proximity of the place.

Agh, is the aft or perpetration of murder.

I>£AKAiD, is debate, each debate is to be weighed according to the cin or crime, and the penalty proportioned tl^ereunto. A cont/lanug amail as comtechfa do reir coir la gac cin.

Teora FOt>LA FOGLA, that is fogail is three fold, and may be committed in three manners, viz. by the heart, by the tongue, and by the aft itfelf ; to thofe correfpond the three terms, ift. Elgtun^ when it regards Cofnraite and determines the fpecies. 2d. Anfoty when it determines the fpecies and is referred to comraite, 3d. Toijcedy when it regards neither thegenus^nor the fpecies, but is applied to Torba.

EtOtlKT FOR, ^SRC A6US IS FUIRRE FERQ FRl

Elguin, viz. Elgtm is ovevferg znd /erg is undei^

E^9m; foe wkkoilt E^uin there is neveiT anger.

Vol. II. C and

ap. FRAGMENT OF THE

motion (cenfeotimluaide) and this is the fine and the manner thereof, viz. three cnmalas are to be paid after the term of thirty days, which are granted free ; (to which by a particular grace twenty-five days more may be added); the whole to be paid out of the region or territory wherein the dead body is found. Caite. a buide ice, i. iria x ma eiftdeic i X laite xx itjiierdajin air xxv laiie cucenta i uide ice na heneclanjtn eric is nefa [c).

Here ends the part called ar nafefer or the ex- plication of tlie terms, and inrnxediately follows the part called ar na blaiy (or on the fedioos of law called hlai)y and do all belong to the legiila- tion of Cormac and his fon Carbre lifieachair.

BlA BM^D FIACHN FEJEIG ; viz. kHQwing of «

dead body in a lonefome place, be the body cover- ed or uncovered, or hidden^ is fiibjeft to this law. The fame holds good if the body bet covered: over or hidden, though found in a frequented place; it aDb takes placeuntil fuch time as the guilty perfou owns the crime, or ui\til it be proved againfl: him* accordftag to law, or mitil legal compenfatioa be: madeby-him. And. if the body hathpetiftxed in a trench or in water, provided it be not a hidden dyke, and in a lonipfome place, there i? no other eric oif fioe ta be paid out that of bare man-

ilaugbter.

(r) Xma Ts af> abhre? iattorv of eumalti, :^xt6t a cuma! is three cows. Has not this Jaw a groac affinity with the L.e- vitical law, where it is coipmaadcd. thH if any p^rfoa was ^tmd flain, and tt was not known who had flain him, thai an heifer J which had not been wrought with, flloald be flib- fl;ii;uted.in tbfi plac^ of the murderer ; and the jodg^fhali mcafur.e unto the c ti«s. round about, and that city .next to ^le flain ihall find the heifer. Beot, zxtl i-, i, 5. Sa our Iriib bir ^ys> the eric or regiod is nefa, neareft or next.

BREHDN I.AWS.

SI

ilitighter. Ifi aitbzue an duine taidhe a denam an dkrim & gan coq> do folach L a denam itir duin- ib iadichlea & corp do folach & na go uadman mti do rigne hi no co tu£lar ar do reir dlige no im deaam tuarafdal & cianatdefat an colam i claid no mmfgd ach narab airdaigin dicealta, ni fil acht ciric marbta na ma an.

C 3 Here

•»• TTic Editor is happv to inform liis corrcfpondcnt C. that in the MSS. of Trinity College, Dublin clal^ L tab. v Ka 5. he hii fosiml the rema'mitig part of the bitti ; /be ^k begins tinK, L^e don Unbof fe Aicill haice Tejmur^ 7 ^imfr di aimfir CQitpri Lijtacbatr mac Corinac 7. pear fa 4$ Cinvur, i. e. The place where this book was written was AiciHmearTard, in the time of Garbre Liffeachair mac Cor- OK, and the perlon Cormac. Hien follows the hiftory of Ceallach mac Cormac thus, Ceallach M*worinac having by force taken away the daughter of Sorar mac Artcairb, Aoiigns G&bJioaidach who was an Arigh-eachta, and at that time in the territory of Luighne, revenging fome in- juftice done to his tribe, by chance went into the houfe of a woman of that territory, and forcibly took from her fome miJk and curds : It would bt more becoming you, fays the voman, to take revenge on Ceallach M' Cormac, in vour niece's caafe, than to rob me of my proviiions. Dildain- ing to reient this language on the woman, he made direA- ly towards Tara, where he arrived after fun-fct. Now there was a law prohibiting any perfon coming armed into Tara after fun'^fet, fo he went in unarmed, and taking down Cormac's fpear from the place where it hung in the hall of Tara« he killed Ceallach M'Cormac on the fpor, and drawing back the fpear with great force, the ferrol at the end ftruck out Cormac's eye and wounded the rcadaire orjudgt of Tara in the back, of which he died. Then Cor- mac was fent to Aicill hard by Tara, to be cured ; upon which the fovereignty of Ireland was conferred on Carbre Lifeachatr, the fon of Cormac, according to the eftablifhed law, that no king having a corporeal blemilh can reign in Ireland. It is then added, that Tara was fo fituated it coudd be feen from Aicill, bm Aicill could not be feen from Tara ; and then begins the Eitge, one folio of which is wanting. The reader muft notice that in this preface Aicill is deicribed as the naiHe of a place ; in the fragment above- meAiioned AiciU is faid to be a Jurifconfuk ; this might proceed froni iht place being fo called after the perfon.

%% FRAGMENT OF THE

Here ends the Fragment, fo that all the reft of the blai are wanting, and all that part compofed by Cinfaela and promulgated by Donal mac Aeda jnac Aimirech king of Ulfter.

The impartial reader, after penifing this ex- traft, will eafily fee that my diftindion between the text of the law, and the explication .of the text, is well grounded ; that the former is of a much higher antiquity than the Chriftian era, though the latter was really the composition of a Chriftian. The ftyle of the text is extremely an- cient, and the language admitted of many expo^ fitions, even from a writer whole time feems to ap- proach within a centuiy or two at the moft of St. Patrick's. He fometimes gi ves many and oppofite fenfes to the fame term, and at other times citesthe authority of the ancients in order to explain him- felf. In a word, every charader difcemible in the text, demonftrates its antiquity, and proves it is truly and genuinely the work of the Pagan Jurif- confult and of the Pagan Irifh princes to whom it is attributed ; which being duly proved, moft po- fitively evinces the ufe of leftefs at le^ft long be- fore the epoch of Chriftianity in this iftand.

I do not recolle6l to have met any where with the words cai/c lujbar^ a chalk book ; it feems to de* note that Cormacufed tablets, covered withfome certain kind of matter, fit to fmooth the furfaces, and to render them fit to infcribe, what he thought proper on them. The word cailc indeed means chalky but it may alfo denote parchment rendered white by chalk. The true fenfe requires to be cleared up by other paffages in our Irifti monu- ments, and for this reafon I leave it to the better

judgment

BR EH ON LAWS. 23

judgment and literary refcarches of our antiqua- rians. Now as the laws regarding manflaughter form the firft part of the feflion called na blaiy and that the explication of the terms ferved only for a preparation to that part, I fhall take notice of fome curious and ufefiildrcumftancestending to illuftrate thofe laws. The Erk or fine for manflaughter fpe- cified in the above fragment, did not regard the perfon who committed the fafl, but was payable to the provincial king, from the petty Jiate or prin- dpality wherein the body of a man or woman was found dead, unlefs the chief of that (late had the particular privilege and faculty of ha vinghis people exempted from fuch a fine; which indeed was one of the nM)ft confiderable immunities a provincial Idog could beftow on a chief of his province. There was a diflference obferved in the inflidion of this fine, for if the fad was proved to be wilful murder, the fine was rigorous, if involuntary, it was lefs rigorous, and in both cafes proportioned to the dignity or bafenefs of the deceafed perfon's condition. And although the aggreffor did fufter the penalty which the law inflifted, the diftridl or ftate whererein the crime was perpetrated, v as not thereby exempted in the leaft degree from paying the fine. Ihis rigour obliged the natives of any dillriA to be careful and vigilant in preferving each others lives, as well as of ftrangers, left they Ihould fuflfer through the malice and wickednefs of others. And certain it is, that many misfortunes which we fiec happen daily araongft us, may be efficacioufly prevented by fuch means ; the natives of a diftridl having it often in their power to obviate them. It

was

24 FRAGMENT OF THE

vjzs for that reafon, without doubt, our Irilh legif^ lators enaded fuch laws. I do iiot r^niiemfaNer to have feen any example of the kind of punifhnieQt^ which thefe laws inflicted on a man guilty of iBur<* der ; they all regarded the ftate or region where- in the fa<^ were committed ; except oqe ^ in the Liber Lecanus, where it is mentioned a perfon was fined feven cumalas (twenty-one cows) for hav- ing wounded an ecclefiaftic in the arm ; and I have readj that the aaceflor of O'Mora, lord of the country, now called Queen^s county, by a fpecial grace, had his ftate exempted from paying Erio or fine, to the king of Leinfter, in cafe of murder or manflaughtcr happening in any part thereof.

We muftobfei've that the Irifli fines arc moftly fpecified by paying cumalas, which word accord- ing to its modem acceptance, fince the Chriftian f ra, means only three cows ; but I have fom&t -V^here met with that expreiliQa regarding Pagan times, wherein it denoted men or women flaves, guilty of crimes defei"ving death, which were de^ livered up as a part of the Erky to be facrificed to the manes of the deceafed.

So much has been faid, and to the purpofe, in thQ preceding numbers of this CSoUeftanea (p. 392) of the unjuft and fevere afperfionof Sir John Davis, on the ancient Brehon L<^w8 of Ireland, I fhall defift entering into an argument that has been al- ready fo well handled ; as we are informed that the moft complete colleitioanow extant of the Brehon Laws was in the duke of Chandois' librar}% but not perfe^, and that twenty-eight volumes of thefi^ laws, foxmerly W that library, are now in the

poffeffion

fiREHON LAWS. t$

poSeSHon of Sir Jc^ Seabright, Bart wfaokas ia- dttlged the author of the CoUc&iQea with two vo» lumes ; all lovers of antiquity ihould be very da» iiTous to have clean copie3 of tb<^ volumes taken off and publiihed. Thde would very probably ferve to throw fomc further lights^ not only on the ftate conilitution, the manners and genius of our anceftors, but aUb on the veryorigin of the natives.

In the Eilay on the ArUiquiiy ojibc Irjfb LanguagB^ addreffed to the Literati of Europe, the author gives us a fpecimen of a code of laws compofed by Swn fon of Aigid, iu the time of Fergus mac Leid, king of Ulfter twenty-lix years before die Urth of Chrift ; it is called Scamhas mor, or the great antiquity. The exhibition of fuch a fragment would evidently prove the point in queftion, if the ftyle did not ihow it to be of a later compd* iition ; and hence I am apt to think, that the ex» {Plication of the text was written by fome Chrit tian, but that the texts or principal heads, to whichfuch explicatory gloflea belong, were of that author. For certain it is, that the faid fpecimen is not delivered in more obfcure and obfolete terms and ftile, than the terms I have copied fromCarbre Lifieachair's code, as above fpecified.

The fpecimen given us is taken out of the body of that code, and regards landed properties, that were fequeftered from the male line, in favour of females, to whom ihey had been ceded, by way of marriage portion or dowry. The ftatute fays, that fuch an afTignation is invalid, and is to be reformed according to the reditude of juftice ; it is laud delivered (fays that old author) againft the

right

afi FRAGMENT OF THE

right of a faxhily, and twelve tongues or Jurifcon- - fults are of more weight to fupport the right of the male line, than one tongue or one Jurifconfult that would reftore it to the females ; meaning, that there is twelve to one in favour of the male rig^t. The fpecimen runs thus: lir do beiri coibchi mna, nad bi maith, nad uidnaidet a folta coire. Tir do bcir dar braigit fine, aratreiffu in da tengaid dec diathintud. Oldas in toen tenga doafend. And then follows; Gach fuidir cona- tothcus techta niica cinaid a meic ; which words are the conclufionof the foregoing part of the fta- tiite. The firft words are an ajdom of the law, equivalent to the Latin axiom regarding proper- ty, viz, resclamat Domino fuo. The Irifti literal- ly means, every profit claims a return to the right ownety and the reft ferve for a conclufion, viz. a fim or male kindredy youjhallpay no fine for the faulty meaning, that as right and juftice favour you, the law fhall not punifh but proteft you,

The following words are the text of a new law on the fame fubjeft, viz. nachai nachaiarnmi nach ^ aindui nach ; and the enfuing part to the end is an explication of this very old text which may be thus interpreted : Of the proximity of bloody thatper-^ Jm is tojuffer the legal penalties to whofe efiaie thefaU tened cattle belong'; for the property of the furniture does not belong to him^ except only in the aife o/*etgin, fior can he enjoy the rights of tlje fen's offspring when the male line is not cxtindl ; but the /aid per/on may poffefs thejbeep which are fattened on the ejiate ; if he goes beyond this, Umujlpayafinefor his fault, andbear the burden of his trejpafs. The words lun thus :

a comoceus

fi R E H O N LAWS. 27

a comocens fine nach a cinaid fadeifin flathair idm» biatha ife iccafs a cinaid. Air ni lais dire a feoh achd colabhin aithgena na ma ni gaib dire ameic nai naca dibad na ceraicc nacha malhair flaith ar ambiatba iffi nodbeir, agus' iccas a chinaid agos foUoing acinta. Here the fpecimen ends; it is hoped the author of that effiiy, will oblige us with a publication of the whole law, and every other fragment of the liloe kind in his pofleflion.

'J^ the above fpecime6, the heads whereof appear to be compiled by a pagan author, and ordained or digefted by the pcrfpn to whom it is attributed, the truth of the e^llence of letters in Ireland bcforl! Chriftianity, is probably demonftrated. But diis is not the only advantage the author feems defirous of pointing to, by this felettion of that code, 4br it alfo gives us a clear and poiitivelaw, according to which all landed properties were to be veiled in the male line, with an exprefs exclulion of females even in the cafe of dowry or portion, and unlefs the male offspring of the family were extinft* This law was univerfal amongft the old Irifti in primitive times, from the fceptre to the plough- ftiare, from the king to the loweft condition of men, who poffeffed landed property ; it was univerfally received as a national maxim, flowing from the particular genius and fpiiit that charafterifed the natives, ar:d from the political circumftances in which they foimd themfelves fituated, relatively to their neighbours, as well as from their ovra com- mon views and public interefts.

Thus that national and ftate maxim originally eftablifhed among the Franks, after their firft fettle-

ments

M» FRAGM£NT OF THE

meats in Gaul/by which all feaiale heirs were ex- clude from any Ihare in the inheritances, which ^faey^raUed Salic lands, was nolt only the refult of 4^eir militarygenius, but alfo a necefiary meafure <tf public expediency, for extending their conquefis on the ruins of the Roman empire. Yet it ihould AOt. be judged that the Franks w*ere eith€r the firft, or the only aoation that adopted it ; no, for it was certainly common to other nations that carefully <^bferved it, with regard to all landed tenures of a jike original conflitution with the Salic lands.

We have good authority to fay, that a great part ^ them were the fame individual lands that bad l>een fet apart by the Roman emperors, puticularly ]^ Alexander Sevenis, in the yedr 6{ Chrift 222, p^ penfionary livings, called rmliinry benefkeSy and appropriated to thofe officers who veere charged with the defience of certain provinces. Now as the right of the. proprietors was condiiiooial, and depended on perfonal military fervice, y^mi/w were naturally excluded from any (hare in them. .The Franks being poffeifed of thefe according as Jthey fell vacant, under their king Qlovis and his ioDS, the Salic laws made no change in their tenure, .but left them ilill fubjed to the obligation of mili- .tary fervice. Hence that exprcfs claufe of exdud- .mg yromen and their race, from iharing in thofe ttate or Salic lands, fo fundamental in the French conflitution, took its firft rife. And in eflcft fince the very Crown and its royal landed properties, were the firft and principal Salic fief, a female fucceffion with regard to the Crown, muft be highly

incoofiftent

BREHON LAWS 29

incoc^ftent with tbe fimdainental maxims of the French ftate.

AccordiQg' to die tenure of our Iri£h laws, alL femalef^ wese excluded from haviug any ihare ia tbe chief aduuniftiatkui of aflairs, as wdl wkk regard to the govevninent of the whole kingdom^ ar ta its petty ftates and inierior principalities ; fbi no other pesioa, without doubt> than that thde ftates. required military fer^ioe^ibrwhidt the female fe:z was difqualified by nature. In eStSt thejr found thcmfehies fituated auBong difierent triba^ of people, whofe principal reprefents^ves weoe Ibmetimea ankbitious^ and m^uft enough to en-* csoacb on their landed properties ; the ialfe s^ooy of being efteemed more powesfnl: and more expert ia war than their neighboora, joined to their ii^ terefls and the advancement of their refpe£dwBf triala^ often determined tfaefe men to difturb the public qutett.aadf endeanrtHir to raiie themielves on tbe ruifis of othesnu HencefoObwedapolitiealraiett cdKly in e^ery bunch or fi^, to chufe out for their chief aiod: kadera, men of known Talour and experi»ace» to 6ght their battles fuccefiively, and toi ddfend tbcic landed pcopevties againft all inyadera. And hence the maximsof excluding women from inheridng landed pioperties was as &cred amongft the ancient Irifh, as amongft the Franks, or any othei! peQpht. And as die lastds of dl the petty fi^tes did abfoktely and indifpen&bly ezchids womea howk inheriting tiiesn, fa the fame lav gf adiaalfy bccaoie: general, and. de&ended to dui k)wd}! d<9QomDatioii «£labd piQpdet»r&

The

3^ FRAGMENT OF THJE

The above Irifh fpecimcn defcribes the injufticer of alienating the lands from the male Hne, in fa^ vom: of women, by the exprefirve term of tir do BXiR DAR BRAiGiT FINE. At this day when E 'man encroaches on any lands, and takes it to farm, by miderfaand dealing and imknown ittms^do ghlae Jt tar^ mo braigidhi or elfe, asgniornhfll do rinfe mo tbalamh do ghlaca tbar mo bhraghaid amach ^ by which it would appear, that when the male line of one family was extinS, the eftate was to devolve on the fept or fne^ and became the property of their males.

The fame law was obferved by other European nations ; the Goths and Vandals excluded women from fucceeding to the throne. We have a very remarkable inftance of this, in the hiflory of Amald^niboj daughter to the famous Theodoric, (and mother of Athelric) king of the Oftrogoths^ This princefs, whofe bright genius and eminent knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues will always do her memory honour, was neverthelefs diiqualified to reign after the death of her fon, on account of herfex, and married llieodatus, with a view to exercife all regal power under his name, in which however ftie found herfetf fittally miftaken in 534. See Caffiodor* var. lib. 10.. : ' '-':: -^

The Roman empire and the Imperial Crowtt excluded women from ever inheriting it. Thus when Atilla king of the Huns, fumamed the fcourgc of God, demanded in marriage Honoria fif|er to Valentinian IIL with a view of fharing

in

BREHON LAWS. 3i

in the empiii?, by virtue of her right, the emperor anfwered, that even in cafe he were married to Honoiia, he could derive no right from her, in- afmuch as w omen had none to the empire. Neque imperium Hofwrue deberi ; virorum eniin non mtdlie-' rum Romanum imperium ejfe. See Prifcus Rhetor. Duchefne, torn. i. p. 223.

The Irifli in primitive times were not only at- tentive in obferving ftriflly the above law, in favour of the male line, from a political and necet fary principle, but they alfo obferved diftributive juftice, in fharing equitably with the males of their refpeftive families. They Ihewed particular honour to their chiefs, and thefe in return did not defpife their inferiors, in the diftribution of goods. The heads of families confidered that the fupport of their friends and relations in time of war, -was abfolutely neceflary, both for repelling the power of their enemies and advancing their mili- tary conquefts and therefore they judged that the fan£lion of rewards and a fair and honeft partition of landed properties, which were often the fruit of their common valour, was the moft firm and eflBcacious cement of union, that could fubfift between the prince and 'his relations. Hence the very nature of thefe military tenures rendered them capable of bemg divided and fubdivided between the males of the firft proprietors, and hence the law of gavelling them took its rife, and was as univerfally obferved in this kingdom, as the very law of excluding the female fex from any fhare in them, has been proved to be.

This

ja GAVEL LAW,

This ga veiling fettlement the Irifh called GAB- HALTUS CINE, or GABHAIL CINE, literally meaning family-skttlamsnt, from whence the Englifh formed the term gay si^-rind* Gar- HALTUs or OABHATL, pronoimccd gavatl, in Iri&iignifies any landed fetdement, lately acquired by conqueft, by inheritance, or by contrail ; but its etymologycal meaning is conqjuest. Thus by the words lxarhar ka gabhala is tmder^ ftood tibe book of Conquefts ; and in the Irifh hifiory of Thomond called Caithreim Toirdeal* bhaig, defcribing the bloody wars carried on be- tween the O'Briens of Thomond and thofe of Arra, kk the thirteenth century, the fettlement or eftate which the latter poflelTed themfel ves of in the conn* try of Arra, is called gabhaltus.

The Franks obfcrved the fame law of dividing the tenures called Salic lands. Abbe Do Bos (hows a remarkable inftance of that truth ;*he quotes for bis voucher the celebrated Bodinus, citing the teftamentary a£l c^ a gentleman of Gtiyenne, whereby the father divides between his fons, the Salic or feodal lands of which he was proprietor. And in the lame place, this author obferves, that in aU appearance thofe military benefices werelhe true origin of the landed properties called tisFS NOBLJ^ or tenures in militiry fervice.

The Anglo-Saxons alfo obferved this cuflom ; it is well known they divided their laiKied interefts between the pofieflbr's children, which they called in their kmguage gifi^al-kin, a wcfrd nearly fimilar in found and in meaning to the Iriih term

OABHAIL-CIME.

The

The Wel(h^ who are the remains of the old Britoqs^ m like pian^r obferved this law, at all times, €A'a6lly in the fame niamier as the Iriih, and coodnu^d fo to do until tlie thirty-fecond year of Henry ^le Eigbth'a re^. See War. Antiq. Hib* c. 8. Dayjs Hift. relat. p. 20.

It is then no way furpriiing> that the chief SiaoNGBONiAN famtUes, exclulive of thofe conr fined within the EngUfh pale about Dublm, ob- ferved ^ fame old cufiom at their firft fettling in this kingdom. 1 he Fit2G£rai.d8, the BarrYs, tlie 3uRKs, &c. &c. were as obfervant of it as the |i:Mh.;fmd ¥?hether.lhey derived it from the pradioe ,of tbeir^):^:«ik>rs thef ran€a-c^<ormans and Wetfh, whp religbufly obferved it, as I haVe ^fhown, qr .V^hi^W tbey conformed themfelves to it, ad>tfaey did to d^. other cuftomaiy laws of this .natioiiy certain itis,.tl^t they did ftriAly foUowit. S^his ha3:bi^n^.difputcd point; but to put it beyond a doulHtJl wUl herertrajpllate a paliage from a book catkd t^^Uiar Irfe clabmcl Maiolchofmaire', which treats patticularly of fome Gavels macfe jn three /difiecent branclies.of the O^rien race ; and then follows thisi Gavel belonging to the Burl^of Gaftld- connel and Brittas.

It begins by relating, that the baitm of Caftteh conncl was cotemporary with the genealogift; ^e (aid baron was Tiboid fon of Tiboid, fon of William, fon of Edmond, fon of William, ion of Richard, Ion pf Walter, fon of Richaid, (on of Edmond, fon/of Richard firft earl of Ulfter, called larla riia, "fon of William og, fon >of William Vqx. ^« D Congnr.

34 GAVEL LAW,

Congur. This red earl was generaliffimo to Edward L in Irelaud, England, Scotland, and Gafcony.

Walter Burk, baron of Caftleconning, now call- ed Caitleconnel, third dired defcendant from Rich- ard de Burgo earl of Lifter, dii^ides bis eftate be- tween his three fons Richard, Edinond,and Tobias. Richard firit larla ma ov red €arl,fon lo WHliam og, fon of William Congur.

Walter gave to thele three fans, whom he had by his wife daughter to Mac William, unequal por- tions of laud, viz. to the eldeft fon Richard, who is ftiied heir, he gave the four plow-lands of Tiu- bridaron,Caftleconaing and the fix plo,w-lands that . are its annexes, two plow-lands of Ballylafgy, four plow-lands of Cahircinlis, and four plow-lands of Clnain Managain in Clan Richard ; which in all make twenty plowlands; he had befides {da cheaih- ramhan diag) twelve quarters of the lands of Cala.

He gav^ hb fecond fon Kdmond four plow-lands , of Difirt labrais, the four plow-lands of Garran i :ciaVa fituate in Aoftri muighe, making in all for ; him eight plow-lands.

: To bis third fon Tobias or Theobald he gave . the.ibur plow-lands of Brittas, two plowlands of Rath Siurtan, and a plow-land of Carrig Ciotail, . aiid he was to receive a mark everj' year as rent 'jdmt of the two free plow-lands of Ballylalky. .jMarg ^(fafan mlliain a dim Sheijiric haera on hhaiU

\loifgthf. ^

It vfras indeed rcafonable and juft that Richard

i. -the eldeft fon . fhould be more gentrbufly dealt

with than his brothers, hot only by virtue of his

birth-iank, but becaiile he had many children ;

for

EXPLAINED.

3J

for by his firft wife, daughter of Macnamara, he had John and Waltei ; by his fecond wife Catha« line Fitzgerald, daughter of the knight of the Glin, he had Richard, Ulic and Thomas ; and by Elizabeth Butler, daughter of Mac Phiarais, he bad Tobias and Ulic the younger, without men- tioning the female offspring.

Richard the red earl was ililed earl of tJlfter,in right of his mother Mora, only daughter and heir- efs of Hugo de Lacey earl of Ulfter; his fecond fon Edmond married Slany O'Brien, daughter of Turlogh O'Brien, lord of Thomond. Edmond's ddeft brother John de Burgo was anceftor to the earls of Clan-Ricard.

It may now be olgefled that thefe examples of the exiftence of the law of Gavel kind only regards the Irifh in the time of Chriftianity, and is noway pertinent to the defign of this effay, which fhould principally tend to illuftrate the laws, cuftoms, manners and literature of the pagan Irifh. My anfwer is, that the introdudlion and eftablifhment of th€ Ghriftian religion amongft us did not change, or meddle in the political or civil laws of the nation, that were juft in themfelves, and adapted to the genius of the people ; it only redified what was vicious or unjuft in them, and fquared them to the interior law of confcience, and the diftatea of good reafon, fecurcly direfted by the gofpeL Hence the converlion of a people to Chriftianity did not affeft their political principles of govern- ment, nor caufe the leaft alteration in their civil ftatutes, when thefe were equitable. And fince no faftof injuftice was fu&red by the Gavel law, but

D 2 OA

3« G A V £ L LAW,

on the contrary, all parties had ibeir rights main- laiued for them by its tenure, confequently it muft be fuppctfed that it was an ancient fundamental maxim of the Irifh nation. I am confident that the Irifh will find it enacled aniongft their laws, in iTie literary refearches into antiquity; and hence I may conclude with a certain degree of plaufibility, that akhough no.proofe taken from authentic writ- iiigs^of p^gan tiuiies could be now exhibited, ncver- theleis a fimpleper^flive of the examples above cited, will fufficiently evince its having exifted in this kiqgdom long before St. Patrick.

Nor arc we deftitute of proofs to clear ixp this difficulty. I fhall taJce no notice of the divifions which certain Irifh princes made of the kingdom between their children,^^pochas very diflant from Chriflianity, as mentioned by Keating and'OTb- herty, becaufe they are efieemed fabulou« authors. I fhall.pointout a vexy lingular ga^vet, fpotn the Liber Lecanus ; it is made by the famoius Nial,. furnamed of the nine hoflages, who difiributed his eflates, called a eric btumt^ between his fon^,^ the ibHovNong manner, viz. i A, to Eogan he gave the lands ofOileachor Qileach tir, callad Ty rcoie; 2A> to Conalgulban he gave from Ix)iigh Fc^yle to the

flrand of Neothaile eaflwapds;; 3d, to Fergus the lands intervening between both, thus expvefled cehtarde 7 bai fi cehtar naiy which words fean to- naean,that he was to havj his alternative in the government, with.his two now mentioned brother^; judicet lector; 4th, to Conal he gave the territoijy of Breag, fituaied in the province of Meatli ; sdBt, to Carbre, who was ibsifinfiar at^^^d&^^i his fojOp,

he

EXPLAINED. 37

he gave the north paits of his deBiefnes ; 6th, to Ks brother Rsachra, the territories near the fea^ ftom Eafroa to Sahnon^Ieap to Rind i fiachracE jn Coxmanght; 7th, to Maine he gave from Cruachan fbd,(orriie woodof Gmachan) fituated in i Briuin Cbnnaaght to Loagh Ribh on the Shannon, and he confUtnted him Ingh prate ffor 6f all Ireland, fug do Ard<omairce Mirm ufie; 8 th, to Laogaire,, famamed garb, he gave the lands and ^vemmem of Tara, fillanmas Teamra ; 9th, to Enna Ilcrothach (or of many Ifaapes) and to his brother Laogaire beg (or the little) he gave from Lough Aidnin in Meath to the north -weft; 10th, to Fiacha he gave Uifnech mor in Meath, in the very centre of Ireland.

Uponallthefediflerentfpecimensof Irifh Gavels, feveral obfer vationa do naturally occur. Firft, that either the fathers or the feniorsof families generally obferved an equitable and fometimes an equal por- tion of lhare8,between the males of the faid families, whereof we fee perfeft examples in the preceding gavels. Secondly, that the nafuraifons had their equal fhares, as well as the fons bom in lawful wedlock; fix>m both which circumltances, we have reafon to conclude, that this cultom was grounded on the patriarchal or primitive law of nature, and confcquently derived from a principle of a more ancient eftabliihment than the laws of ChrifHan princes, whereby hajiards arc excluded from fuc- ceeding to the family eftate, while the legitimate children are living. Thus according to the fame primitive law, Jacob's fons by the handmaids of hfe wives Leah and Rachel, are ranked amongft the heads iff the' twelve tribes ofljrael, upon a level ia

point

38 GAVEL LAW,

point of landed property, with the fons of his lawful wives, and their defcendants entitled to enjoy their ihares of the land of promife, as well as thofe Iprung from the other children of that patriarch.

It is alfo remarkable, that it was generally the fenior, and not the direSt heir in lineal defccnt from the common ftock, who was qualified to make this gavel, becaufe he was the chief proprietor ; of this we fee a clear inftance in the Cuanagh gavel made by Conor mor O'Brien, whofe coufm-german Tur- logh fon of Thady, furnamed Anchomraic (the fighter) was the direft heir, this Thady being the elder brother of Mortogh father to Conor mor. Notwithftanding we fee that Conor, by his right of feniority, was chief of the family, proprietor of its landed eftates, and folely qualified to make the gavel; the text runs thus: Tug an Qmchur morfa Icaib na codach ranna fearcunn rainig e fein do dhis tnbac Taidg an chomhraic air a mbeith na Jinjior braith^ recb aige; he explains this matter fully by the fol- lowing words, dob age an Muircheartach fo athair Chonchubbair mhoir tia Taidhg an chomhraic.

Another obfervation, equally curious, may be noticed, viz* that though the chief or fenior flints himfelf to a bare equality of (hare with every other male of the family, yet he referves the chief pro- perty of the eftate as vefted in himfelf during his life, by fubjedling all the other fliarcs to a chief rent, which was to be paid him in an humble and dutiful manner. This was doubtlefs flight and in- confiderable, neverthelefs it was a fufficient jnark both of his authority over them, and of their de- pendency on him, as their chief lord ; in a word,

.the

E X P L A I N E, D. 39

the equality of lhares,ihbwed a real commimity of

goods between the members of the family, and the

reicrved chief rent, both fecured the refpeddue to

the fenior, and declared the property of the eftate

to be veiled in him alone. Hence ^/c^hat Strabo

applies to the Afiaik Iberians was equally applicable

to the Irijb nation in former times. Hi omnia per

findlias communia habent ; fed is imperat ei rem ha-

bet quijenkr ejl.

Now as the refer ve of chief rent on the ga veiled . lands, not only eflablifhed the fway^ ^i^d influence . of (he chief Lord, or head of the family, over all the members of the tribe, and likewife fecured for him a revertion of jthe eftate when the a£hial tenants either forfeited or died without iffue; fo this cuftom -was not, and could not be then attended with any confequenc^ fo deftrudive of the fplendor of a fa- mily, as it muft be in our days. In ancient times the dignity of a chief did not depend on pecuniary revenues ; it cpnfifted in his power and influence over the tribe he governed, in the affluence of pro- vifions he hjad for his houlhpld, ^nd in the number of fighting men he could command to vindicate his rights, to aflift h^ friends, or to enlarge his con- quefts. And as to fhe fplendor of the tribe in general, it confiftcd in their number^r in the full and peaceable enjoyment of their rights, and in their capacity of fumilhing their family chiefs with their different fupplies.

In fine, the Gavel cuftom, as it was obferved by the ancient Irifh, appears to have been perfefily reconcileable with the exigencies of the ftate, and with the dignity of any chieftain, were he even a

JTovereign

4<r O' A V K 3W LA W,

p&e6. Ma my M^ fiiH^ it «H!»

of a»MB«t$*« jkic6 'arid iqaky; and fince it y¥i» adl^ied p eiJ^S mt ^b^MHicts of p«^ik)6dl gOS^efidn^i^in ^^ it co^ riot be produaiv^

e^^ome^ t ft fecwsa tMi- pW:j?6gik0viis to ftfr

dd^ft^ aiid !thd^ biitbkighC» to tlte yoiiri^er bro- thers of a family, far from qualifyini; tht latfer> i& sty eafttdl dr^^iriJMseeir, Ibf ^^» fh& natixr4 ri^ts 6( (h« formed

1 f{ji(te» ifiyl^if iEfe fHiim Mil rildilr be ^(ttvihced df (l^ifhj«dt €j^lS^b{$dfiSretis ah3imek>a', xvbicfa fa^ve hUeii ^r6\iHi dri {^ l^^trs jM in^hi^ts df tbe aSKieat Iriih; &tr iq \iU Vtvt words ibf ah hoddur- siAt icAd vi»y l6afri6d auiKof, "^tbe did ads of a fyAti m li«ft hiAy t'te Sdi jt^dtet^fii for a Mftor)^, but tht?^ af€ Ukew^ife iftibrig ddcrip^idris of the maimew of thd dBa*." Arid I aih {^rf this ho- nourable gfMitieiriafi (r) fhMM fufiTef hjhifelf to U mifted fo latic^ tvltii i^efpR to f^ niHii ^6 to de- dsfe bis opinliori latelij^ Va A ver^l^gtri^ ^fj^tribiy, diat "thfe kibgs bf It^!/^^^ ^veri fd W« ks the rei^ of Ric^ii^ II. fSsA U) hslV^ be^ri as kt'tle dvili^ as ^6 podges ^ mf-Mi JHAfica." the hofidorr abl^ gjgiLtl^iri&ii meM ]^e6cmddd his ijiiuthbrity dri a Wtitet, wbd fciigW its With bf the hi«riri<;riJ df the |S^lfe;t^litt^fld} Jb be aid of tfidfe 6f O^aheite. "With as much propriety he iriS^bt qudtfe 4 WVil«Jt dif

■'■■■■ . (he

, if) Hdfl. Ddlic^ B9rHag{^, !« i pi^» fM Mfbrfe iM ilK'itty. pf ;(nd({uarianK, i>dnt)pih on ^liir^h lii., 17^1, .in<l pfintetl in tfie tnir^ volume of Arcbxblog. p, .75. The sttl&*^?A)r Yk mentioos is Froifikrc, 1. 3. p. 204.

tXl^lAtTtitf.

41

tehw heat pl^»ts; ufOtt the Brihm toivs; irnhg

Bewildbeajh of ihe woods; drmktrs of the bldcdof iturhdst mi Meriof rOW JUfb (f). Bat at the v^'{)eri6d {tii§ teiioiix^bte and learned gentleman 1$ pliSiftd to denoihitiate f hem farages, we \x% leave to prove, from as good authority, that the In(h were a civilised, mercantile people, and re- iK)WiWd for their manufactures in a coiintiy wbere iflS iifd fcdtotfes bad been long eitablifhed. .

SiAillineilte pidamo eh IRLANDA,

La dual fra noi e degna de fama

Per le iiobile faie che d manda.

C^fta gente ben che moftra felvaggia £ per 11 monti la contrada accierba Non de meno le dolcie ad cui lafaggia. Dita mundi, componuto per Fazio di Gluberti de Flzenza. Capitulo 16. Printed 1474.

The

(/) LucsB De Linda, Defcriptio Orbis. Amfterdam 1665. p. 385. Mores Hibernorum noftri temporis. BaptizatU in- fantibus nomina imponunc profana— matrimoniacontrahunt, non de prscfenti, fed de futuro, i4eo facile divortiutn ad- mittunty ubi fine negotio raaritus allam quccrit uxorem et inulier alteram maricum — filvedres Irlandi in genua procum- bunty cum noviiunium fp€<ftanc — frumentum pro equis* quorum ingentem gerunc curam, fervant — urgcnte nimium fame eciam crudas carnes comedunt — vaccx fanguinem co- agulatum butyro fuperfundunt, et ita comedunt. Adbaec Anglo-Hibcrni adeo ab antiquis illis Hibernis funt feperati ut colonorum omnium ultimus qui in Anglica provincia ha- bitat, Biiam fuam, vel nobiliOdmo Hibernorum principi in matrimonium non daret. — Tales vcro lites seilimare folent certi homines quos Brebonios appellant, qui tam juris civilis,

3aam Britannici ignorantes funt, judicantque foium ex brUefticis confuetudinibus, qux ufu et frequentia a<5luuai receptSB funt, — In fylvis et montanis velut fer« oberrent locis — quod iilorum fpe^at eruditionem, ilia valde exigua eft. Medicos ibi hxreditas, nqn do^rina facit, fatifque fe dodos putant, il iilud Hippociatis, ars longa vita brevis recitzxc

42 GAVEL LAW, EXPLAINEIX

The author according to fome uas prior to Dante. Crefdmbini thinks he flourifhed about 1370.

In art Jaie in the di£l. dclla Crufca, there is quoted an ancient romance^ called quaitre coritty in

"which the hero gives a gown oifaia dlrlanda to his miftrels.

G manda in line 3. imdoubtedly marks an eftab- fiflied trade and not ah accidental intercourfe; and in the Brehon laws prior to this time, we find a tax upon .Italian wine> and on the ihells of the great cocoa nuts, brought from Italy, to be made into drinking cups. The Brehon laws are faid to have been annulled at a parliament held at Kilkenny, in the government of L. D. of Clarence, who landed in 1365.

OF

•*y~

OF THE

LITERATURE

or TH s

I R I S H,

AFTER THK

ESTABLISHMENT

O F

CHRISTIANITY.

N

O man underftood the languages of thefe iflands better than Mr. Lhwyd, and no man has done more juftice to the purity of th^ Ibcmo- Celtic or Irifh dialed. This learned antiquarian avers, that he had feen and perufed an ancient Irifh vocabulary in manufcript, wherein the letter P was not comprehended. No Irifh manufcripts flill ex- tant, or even in Mr. Lhwyd's time, can with any well grounded authority, be efteemed of higher antiquity, than the beginning of the ninth century, or at mofl the end of the eighth, although it mtifl be allowed, that fome poetical fragments regarding hijftory and genealogy, compofed by authors who

lived

44 LITERATURE of the IRISH

lived before the eighth century, have been copied by the annalifts of fucceeding ages, and by them tranfmtlted down to us ; yet we muft caadidly own, that manufcripts of the ninth century are exceeding rare ; but fince Mr. Lhwyd, whofe can- dour was not inferior to his erudition, does not give his opinion of the antiquity of his manu- forlpt vocabulary, I advance its date high enougli, when I fuppofe it to have been written in the tenth century ; and if the letter P were then ufed, it is beyond all doubt, that it may be found in it, as well as all the other letters of the Iriih alpha- bet. Hence we may conclude with full affurance, that the Irifh did not receive the letter P for writ- ing their own language, before the tenth century, if they adopted it even fo early ; the plain confe- quence Df which is, that till then, they received and made ufe of no more than fixteen letters, for writing their language.

The fparing ufe the Irifh have made of the letter P, even finer they adopted it, anrftheir carein Tub* Rituting the letter B in its place, plainly fhows, ttiey looked upon them as ciara^ers of the fame organ. This obfer vation carries far greater weight, when we conlider this fabflitution to take place, even in words evidently borrowed from the Latin, wherein the letter P always was the dominant cha- racler ; as in the Irifh words deifciobal a difciple, ahf^il an apoflle. Now it is clear to everj^ perfon, Ihat tbefe two words unknown to the Irifti before their converfion to Chriflianity, were written with <he letter P and never with B, the former of Latin

origin

cMgk^il^^cs^W^i, aad the io^&cvt a Orwk dcHra* rioQwasalwajis w»it^Qi*|{j^g^M0^#^that.t9a8iKUiU^ 4fffffioius IB ^ Latin. Xt is «^i^dwt ibwi mw^ examples whkh wgbt <be quoted, tbititijiefGidrwlis 3jul BtomaiiBfhadiDQt been aooun^oaQVI^.tO'dir- tdogoiih bet^ieen tkefe two d^Ma^n^ fUiriSl their ilauguagee thiew off tibe antique dve^ i>f i)adbamldeo» and faecaine poHfted land trcfioed by fi Xitt^aflmnilf :greatpQetsaBd^€tfat€>rs Qa|Hibleof ri«&02ng*thQlfm- tguage, wbiJe they frefomcd the litexaiy ^afte>tff ihar Gcmmi^nBeQ. i^:nditiaia knomadFafi* limt tbeDutoh ftod Elenuogs, andieyeml j^^wriMratifts ou the-Q^iitiBent|dbo '»Qt diftiiiAl^rAad am^o^^ psoHoaBce thefe two ehaia^rs to 'this vevy idaf . I iBs^y aUb .ad4 ^^t in <lhe old Msjxnc a]|&abet called l^ Qla¥fi Wonniufi, )ialphidichim S^tmattn Gctbarum vetuJHJJimumy noxither idiflmoae is^losbe ieen betweea3 aiui P>teaEoqpt jdhatcthe fasDcthzr FaderiisipuJBtAQaiedtti/vacertocpdm out;^^ iboMgli in the Aushc alphahdtref "Vuiphilai^&tfiinflippiif the \%rigeth5):tO!bQ feen io QJbus W0f nduste^Sjoiuc liiemturer both .tbefi^^cbanaibnts. ant asidificMait,^ aQyfitherkttet^of^atali^mhet. Ibis ooedlfi&to (jueteexajt^ple^ wtheye the JiiihiiayegeiMxa^&b- ftitHted.the.JctterrJ&iUiftead.of i?, r^cthefe words, wherein; tbelaUer)]eHer is nom made^ufisrof imthont ai^ difficu%, iince many :<rTflraf>kw ^it are^tofbe inet with, »in 4tkE»ftievcpy:page)3of rthe .'vsellum manidkiripl^. Tetlhavenotfeeaamyjoianufcnpts, ia-whieh the kt^^jdidnot fiMiftetmie.vQccnr,((fome iblios of (heJiisehQa lawsjsnrpted) /although iefs freiqHeasktliyH^buia initjbe Jrgbwritmgp. irfitater timeB, ib that Tthe higher a^^oBountaifSJifae aHtiqint^i^f

the

LXTEltATURE 09 rnt IRISH

die manufcripts » more difceraable^by the litdc made of P« Indeed k k icarq^y at sdl to be fo in the Iriih fragments, dted here and there, fi ihefirft preachers of the gofjpd ttd fheir iramed lucceflbrs, confequently befoie the intpoduftio Latin fiterature in this ifland, the letter P was &> much as known ; or if they obferved any ference between it and B, they thought fo dofi affinity reigned between the organic powen both, as that the cbara£^ers proper for ex|»:ef the one, might equally ferve for founding the otl leaving it always to the judidoos noEder's ooi jfcmding and experience to make the difcemmi

. and to diftinguifh by his articulation, what yet undetermined for want of a diftind chara£ hence in fome of our modem grammars the '. called B ^ i. e. B foft.

To the above remarks I fhall adjcnn the foil ing obfervation, as curious in itfelf, as pertineo

' the prefent difcuiEon. The Iriih monuments wt either confuming time, or the extravagant zea parties, have permitted to reach our times, chi confift of literal tranflations and comments on iAd or new teftaments, commonly concluding v

. the redtal of fome miracle, or the lives of the fa and martyrs ; and there is fcarce any volumin piece of vellum manufcripts, which does not ; comprehend fome few diflertations on medic

. and are for the moil part literal tianflationi

• Hippocrates and Galen, the two moft celebra phyficians whom antiquity can boaft of. In thcfe compofitiom^ we find Latia texts and qu< tions very faithfully dted, not only from

Penutei

AFTER CHRISTIANITY. 47

Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Evangelifts, mo&\y accordiqg to the ancient vnlgate or Italic veriion, but alfo from the original Greek of the two famous parents of medicine above-mentioned. I have alfo in my pofleflion a very fair copy of Si/bu MS de Mgris in Almanfartm^ beautifully written on Tdlum. Now it is remarkable, that although the letter P be often ufed in the orthography of thefc authors, ^et in the quotations it is generally omittefi, and the letter B fubftituted in its room, by oar Iriih fcriveners. This muft have been done with ' knowlec^e and defign, and clearly demonftrates, that the Iriih did not receive or ufe it earlier than about the ninth or beginning of the tenth century ; for it is unqueflionably true, that feveral of thofe manufcripts are not more ancient than that epoch, as may be eafily difcovered by the novelty of the ftyle and other chara£lers«

There is another inftance regarding this charader worthy of notice, as it (lands coeval with Chris- tianity itfelf in Ireland, and feems to fumifh us with a lUbfidiary proof of the ufe of letters having been fubftituted in Ireland before that period. All readers of ecclefiaftic hiftory are no ftrangers to the religious veneration and folemnity paid by all Chriftians, to the feftival of leafier ^ both in the Greek and Latin churches, but particularly by thofe who were to be employed in the converfion of infidels. Great debates have arifen concerning the day of its celebration in an early period ; it may be fuppofed the miifionaries into Ireland, who firft delivered the divine word to the pagans of this country, did not fail, as ufual^ to infpire into the

hearts

JO LITERATURE of the IRISH

jsgecled this charader, aad fiibftkoted in its place tb or ;n^, and more anciently b or triy with a point or daih,. to determine the found and value of the Latsa V confouant; their realbn muft undoubtedly have been, either that thatfmiple chara£ler v w*a» n<:ver ufed in their own alphabet, or elfe, that the Iralh language had no &ch found as^v confonantin their dialect^ which is fo far from being die cafe». that it .occurs. liCtmoFe frequently in the Latin, or any other li\ ing or dead language whatfoeverf infomuchrhatitcaii,and does atftually take place' in all words beginning wit^ either B or M, in order to form the iufiexions^ and is ealily diftinguilhed by the ikilful reader, to whom the affixing a point or daAi, as was fometimes pra^ifed by the ancients^ will be imnecefiary, and much more fe, the ad* joining of t^e afpirate H> fo as to make it bh or mb^ by which diefe ft rong labial elements are meta-* morphoTed intb afpirated, or whiftling eharaders. If I may uie dbe expreffion, after the example of &e learned DefbroifeS) in his ingenious^ work oih ihe.m£cbaBical formation of languages^

Now as thisr condudi of the &rft Iriifh converts,, with regard to certain Icttdrs of the Latin ^phabet^ feems' dite&ly oppofile to all good economy^ where^l^^ receiving a-f«v inoreof them,efpecially the.v co«fonax4, would have fparetl.them expence' e>f; time, and labour and vellum, objcdls not tin- worthy their cajre, fo their conftancy in adhering to fo injudicipus a practice, afibrds almoit a proof and arjum^nt in. favoirr of the prejudices of tlreir

former edwcafion and letter?, whereof they intended

to

AFTER CHRISTIANITT. 49

found in the Latin tongue^ for which confequently the Romaas hM no charafiers, though fome of them arc to be met with in the Greek and other European dialects; but fince they laid afide their own ancient charade rs, and adopted the Roman alphabet, they Hill retained fach a veneration for their old letters, as never to admit any of the Roman charadters, which were not found in their prifflidve alphabet, even when they wrote Latin words, wherein fuch characters were ufed at alji times.

Thus in all words begun or ended by X, inllead of writing that iirople charaAer, they never chofe to rcprefent it, otherwife thafii by employing two of the Roman characters, viz. gs or cs, a trouble they certainly might have faved themfelves, at leaft in writing the Latin^ had they not rejeCled it as an exotic character, and not exifting in their ancient Qlpkt\bet\ if this was not the true motive, I candidly acknowlec^e, the cafe feems to me a paradox; for ifthelrilh had no letters before the introduction of the Latin alphat)et, what could be their motive conftantly to rejeCt fome fimple characters, and fuljftitute two different letters in their ftead, efpe* dally in writing a foreign tongue, to which all fuch diaraCters were equally proper and fitting ; and if qU letters were equally new and exotic to them, certainly all had an equal right to be preferved by them ? Yet did they admit X as a numeral.

This is not the only inftance I find of the fame economy being praCtifed by the Irifh writers of ancient times, for when occaiion offered of writing V coofonant fo natural to the Latin, they always

Vol. IL E rejeacd

5t LITERATURE of the IRISH

reform, fo as to lofe the radical words and ortho- grapliy. In the reign of Elizabeth, or at moft in the time of Hen. VIII. the Irifh, like all other languages of Euiope, began to take a new drefs; but no Iboner u as ihis attempted by the natives, 'than the Euglifh reformers took Heps to extirpate its traces in Ireland, which has been the chief rea- fon of its letaining its Celtic purity and orthogra- phy ; the Iiifh at ihat time Ibeing bent in oppofi- lion to preferve it, had no leifure to continue thact refinement, which would probably have difguifed its radical Celtic ftrufiure, fo as to befuch as we fee the Wellh dialeft ai this day.

This proceeding of the Englifli reformers, far from being conformable to good fenfe, and towards obtaining the intended purport and end of theii* deiigns,was in efie£l diametrically oppofite to both. For in order to perluade any people into a new opinion and a new form of worlhip, it revolts all reafon, to think that the method of cSeOing k fhould be exhorting them in a foreign language ; for in that cafe, they mud firft have had the trouble of teaching them this new language, or wak until the people firft rcjedled their own dialeft, which was as elegant and as proper as the language of the reforming minifters at that time, to exprefs all the thoughts of man's heart, and to convince the hearers of any truth whatfoever, in either a literary or a religious matter. And thb blindnefs of the reformers with regard to their uniformly praying and preaching in Englifh, has been afcribed to a particular pro-iidence of God in favour of the Roman Catholic religion, and to the holy prayers

and

ATTER CHRISTIANITY. 53

.and interceflion of the Virgin Mary, as well as to flat of St. Patrick and his fellow labourers in this country.

Now, as to the abfolute orders and command Aurluch, it is faid, had been impofed on the primitive Irifli converts, by their spiritual guides and fupe- iTors, to lay alide the ufe of their antient pagan cha- laflers ; I am far from thinking it was altogether founded on the notion of fome preachers of the gofpel, mentioned by the author of the Irifh hiftori- allibrary after Verelius, by which they reprefented thofe charaAers as if they had really been the hand- writing of the Devil. This opinion certainly docs not want for authority in the Irilh antiquities, for in the Liber Lecanus it is exprefsly faid, in a very ancient piece of profe fpeaking of the literature of the Danians (who preceded the Milefians by 200 years), that they compofed dans or verfes, which were for that reafon prefcrvcd carefully, until fuch time as the Chriflian faith was preached in Ireland; but that they were then dicuriach, exterminated, becaufe they were the invention of the devil.

I (hall give the text at large in its antique attire, and add thereto the reafon of this ancient writers faying, " that it is manifeft from hiftory contained b thefeflfaw or poems, that they were of diabolical invtotion.** Ar da tainic creidim ni ro dkhurtht na dona Jin or it maithe 7 ni dernai deaman maitb^-His fiilas ajfafebaib ^ as a migedaib nau do deambntib na fiigaighe do Tuaih d. danain. From this ancient text it Teems to follow that this Danian colony, which filniiihed druids, poets, harpers, and handicrafts of many profeffions, whofe pames are "recorded,

mufl

54 LpERATURE of the 15^ISH

' 9111ft h^y^ hgd fpmc kind of cfearaders to wpte t^^ ^]t^ in, tbouglj I Qvm it 4q?s ^pt fbllp^ sib * licceffary confequence, but a probable one ; for ^ tj^ey cpntaiii^ the form of p^gan worlhip, and ■were for this re^^^ to devils by the

ChriiGan miOBonaries, fp the great care thefe pagan dniidshad in preferving them, muft very naturally have led them on to find out certain charaAers, which niight exprefs their meaning, ia prder to be read with more eafe by the druidi^h priefts, and delivered to the people with greater confid^c^ apd fpcunty ; as no traces pf thefg dans have been handed down to ppft^rity, probably they werq exterminated foon after Chriftianity.

It is evideiit, the author of the boojc of Lecan, who lived Ipng after t^e epoch of Chriftianity, had no fort of view pf doing honour to this colony of people, but was rather inclined to depreciate their real merit, lb his afcribing tp them excellept ve^fes Ibefore the Chriftiaii era in Ireland, is a pretty ilrong proof, that the ufe of letters was well known before that time ; fpr the text fays, that until the coming of the faiihy tjjeje e^ns were not hanijbed by req[od of their goqdnefi J H i? ipripojEble to conceive how thefe excellent verfes could bp pi-eferv^d by the help of oral traditjpn only, to the time of St. Patnck*$ arrival ; or hpw could the new converts deftroy or extirpate t^^im, unlefs they bad been committed to wrjiipg.

The cpmpile^s pf t^^e JJb^ Lecanus^ frppd whence A^ ??tra(^ w?is p^^ ^^^ oif thp trib? of peopl^ caiJf d Clan^ Ptrhijffjg^ vvl^ we?9 tieredit^ry antiqua- rians, miqUU t% qfU^sl i ^Jlfbwl^ Aidto? in

the

AFTER CBRI»riA»fT« 55

Accdaaty caf Gaivdj, as I have fomewhece f6(^ KiieicofOUeney w»di)kf U^tod^and OSiisiglmfSkf

ttiHch£>J3|oiKle\va8diief; tliidPgatlK^rout^tht JUfaer Lrcanuft, whcxe it is often |aid» tfaoit thtf jdecircd undiBr 0 Ikiude, ^iiom they acknowled^ as thor lord and mafien Tlte reader itouft ttader^ ftand, that theft 4lit2q»araam only ti^smlbrihedtkek volummous pieces of hiftofy^and 'gencak^ out of other writings, without the leaft dHbecnment <^ «rkkiii», and ^ the drcfs wherein they found them recorded^ infomneh that the ftyle uii^ Sa relating f^fEts near thdr own tiine^,i^aitiiffi»ent from that made nfe of for recording the deeds of remote antiqaity, as^our laodeiii English difi^ from that ^ken in the days of Hen. IV. and V. in England.. Tl^ defeft of critical examination in them, produces a double advantage to us, iff, we h^ve a view of die manners of the ancient Iriih, 2d, we at« firily inftrufled in the ftyle and language. By the firft, we are enabled to pafs a riglit judg- ment on thofe ancient times ; and thus when we find notions ferioufly delivered for truths, that are notonouily incompatible veith the firft principles of Chriftianity, and are known to be the tenets of pagan perfuafion, then no reasonable caufe of doubt remains for us to conclude, that fuch writ- ings are of pagan times.

This truth can be exemplified in a moft ftriking iQftanoe,f rem the Liber Lecanus, wherein the pagan iyitem erf the tranfmigration of fouls i$ gravely exhi^ bited. Many authors affirm, that the dodrine of mehmfifyclxijis firft taught in Egypt, and thence

introduce^

S6 LITERATURE Of thb IRI^H

introduiQdiiQJto Greece by Pythagoras, was hy las difciples communicated to the Italiaiis^ and not lUilsjD^wn in Gaul to the druids and paga]& do6lor8. I.baye.not met with any other paflage in Iriih antiquities, that evidently points out the metemp- fychoiisy as a known tenet of religious perfuafion ; althoi^gh it is very probable, that not only this, but many other tenets belonging to pagan times, may be as yet found in the old Irifh vellums, if didy examined by men of letters. , Whether Pythagoras was the firft author of the doArine of metempfychoiis in Greece, or not, and the firft propagator of it in Italy, wherein he held his fchool, called the Italic fchool, it is aflert^- ed as an undoubted fadi by many authors, that his dodlrine was taught and imderftood in Ga^i^ and well known to the drnids of that and the neighbouring countries.

In this book it is recorded, that no doubt can be railed concerning the poftdiluvian invafion of Ireland, fince Tuan fon of Ccuril, who was bom of the wife of Murdoch Mundmg^ aiferted it ; for he lived in Kcfair's time in the form of a man ; then for 300 years in the form of a deer ; after for 200 years in the ftiape of a wild boar ; then 300 years in the fhape of a bird ; and laftly 100 y^ars in the ihape of a falmon; which being caught by a fiftierman, was made a prefent of to the queen of Ireland, on account of its rare beauty, and (he upon eating it, immediately conceived and bi ought forth the famous Tuan mae Cairily who related the truth of Kefair*^ e^irpedition into Ireland, and alfo

informed

AFTER CHRISTIANITY. 57

informed them of the invafions of the fkbalgs and Damns.

From this qiiotation and literal tranllatioii two confequences may be drawn ; firft, that the Irifli did andently beUeve the tranfmigration of fouls irom one being into another, they ftill retainii^ the powers of reminilbence and knowledge, during all the different times of their infufion into tbofe bodies ; fecondly, that the writer of fuch a piece was truly a pagan^ and as a neceffary corollary, that the Irifli pagans knew letters and writing.

Thus Pythagoras pretended he IcneW and re- membered in what bodies his foul refided, before be was ftyled Pythagoras ; firft, he was Cetha/idus, the fuppofed fon of Mercury ; next, he became lupborbusy who was flain by M enelaus at the fiege of Troy ; afterwards, he was Hermotimtis ; then he became a fiflierman of Delos by name Pyrrbus ; and at lail he became Pythagoras ; and he alio affirmed, that he well remembered all thefe dif- ferent tranfmigrations; that he fuffered in Hell, and faw others fuiier likewife. Let it be remem* bered, that this man, by the clear light of reafon, difcovered that ufeful demonilration, of the fquare of the hypothenufe being equal to the fum of the two fquares, &c. &c. which proved as ufeful in mathematical folutipns, as it was agreeable to this great philofopher.

AN

AM

N Q U

INTO THE

FIRST INHABITANTS

O F

IRELAND.

I

LT it the opinion of many learned Irifhnien, that fome colony of the oriental people, who wor- Slipped Belus; or Baal as the Chaldaeansexprefs it j ganre its iicft inhabitants to this ifland. In all pro- liability they were no other than the indigent erf the Land of Promife, the Chanaatkitss; who having been cfifpoflefiEbd byjc^na, and the people of Ifrael, made vaft emigrations into the iflands of the Mediterranean fea, and planted themfelves not only in thofe iflands, but alfo on the maritime cxaifai and regions of that fea.

Inftead of Chanaanitesthey then took the name of FhenicianSy not from their dwelling at Tyre^ Sidon, and the country near the Red Sea 'Paiuxo^y or by allufion to the traffick of purple garments, or from the palm trees 0«i»<ick as different etymologifts will have it ; but rather from the Phenician word

BEN-ANAK,

AN E N <^U I R T. Ice. 3^

siK-AMAiL, the cbil4reu or tribe of Anaic, Uie

An^ites beipg tfa^ prindp^ tribse of the whole*^ agr^^ble to the Iriih tribes Mac-Mahon, Mw^ Caithy, &C. Although it muft ]^ ywned, that the enoergency of their affairs had firfl compelled the Pbenicians tp engage ia naval expeditions, they however derived great advantages from that neceffity. They excelled all nauons of the Uni- verfe in failing and trafiick, and made nfefiil diU coverics of iflands in the European feas, the Me- diterranean, in Egypt, Greece, Spain, &c. before then iminhabited.

Ben-Anak, literally means the fons of giants oc heroes, which is certainly the figni£cation the Irifh gave the word fbne and fjcins ; hence to this day FEiNSAO or F£iNiG is ufed in old records and foQgs to denote a champion, a hero, or a giant. The author of a learned work on the primitive elements of languages blames the great Bochart, for not having underftood the word Phenicians, to be of the fame import with the Ghalda^n word Chanaanite, for as Chanaanite iignified a merchant or negotiant iu that language, from the Chaldacan radix Chanaatiy a merchant, fo doth Pbenician mean the fame thing in Greek, fays this author, for pkn and PHKN means money, traffick, ufury, thus pHKNiNiM doth alfp denote riches, or jewels, and FANus in latin is ufury . He means to ftrengthen his opinion, by faying, that thofe of Syria and Pa- leftine were the firft merchants. The Ifraelites trafficked in fpices and perfumes in the times of the patriarch Jacob, that is, after the year of the creation 2300* All this would as direftly prove

' that

<fo AN ENQ^UIRY INTO THE

diat the Ifmaelites in particular, and the other trad- ing people of Syria, fliould bee ailed Chanaanites, with as much propriety as the people of Chana^n. He oppofes the fame learned author's opinion, that the Phenicians abandoned their old name of Cha- naanites, on account of the infamy they were fubje£l to, through the curfe pronounced againft their progenitor Chanaan ; the reafon he gives for thiscorreclionis as infufficient asthe above, witnefs, fays he, the Chanaanean women mentioned in Matthew xv and xxii, who came from the environs* of Tyre and Sidon. This proves nothing ; for the evangelifts without doubt mentioned her extra Aion from Chanaanites, as they had been accufed by God; and particular orders given by him for their utter extirpation, that fo the office of our redeemer may be more confpicuous, while he defpifed not the afflifted offspring ofanaccurfed people; fotbat this is not the language of a Phcnician writer, but of a Ghriflian evangelift. Some interpreters think, fhe was called Chanaanean from ' a town iituated in Phenicia, bordering on the lands allotted to the tribe of Afer, which was called Can a, whereof there is alfo mention made in Jolhua, ch. xix, where it is exprefly faid, that the boundaries of the tribe of Afer were Abran, Rohob, Hamon and Cana, unto the great Sidon. If this interpretation be true, his argument becomes void ; St. Mark calls this woman a SyROPriENiciAN, either becaufe the Syrians at different periods incorporated with the Phenicians, or elfe to diftinguilh them from the Carthaginian, who were fometimes called Libyo- phenicians.

^ The

FIRST INHABITANrS OF IRELAND. 6t

The word anak which means a giant or hero,

kctos to be the radix of the Greek anax, genitive

anaxtos, the ufual term for a king; the feptuagint

interpreters tranflate melech and melchi, a king,

into anax, anakta, or anadta ; this however was

not its true and proper meaning, it firft imported

a faviour or defender, and as this was the true

oihce of a fovereign, and the motive for creating

liim was to defend and protedl a people or kindred

from deftniflion or oppreflion, fo it was not im-

natural it fhould become the firft appellative of a

Jkiug. Homer calls Agamemnon and others by

this name ; Jupiter is ftiled anax of gods and men;

neverthelefs the inferior gods are ftiled anaktes to

fignify defenders or faviours. Afty-anax was a

title the Trojans gave Scamandrius the fon of

Hedor, which according to Homer's interpretation,

meant a defender of the city. See Iliad, vi. 399.

Now the Irifli word anac or anatk, means fove,

defend ; thus we fay amiic frin a Tbiama^ favc^

froted us J 0 Lord; anacal means prote<Slion, alfo

the fafe-guard of a prince, and anac clan^ fome-

times written eneaclany is the term in the Brehon

laws, for the tribute paid by the clan or tribe, to

the chief, for his proteftion.

The obfcurc traditional accoimts preferved in the old Irifli manufcripts, and renewed by Keating and others, that the anceftors of the firft inhabi- tants of Ireland, firft fettled in Crete and odier iflands of the Mediterranean fea, as alfo in Egypt, Greece, Spain, &c. do apparently point out to the reader, the ftate and progrefs of the Phenkians^ after their expulfion under the condudt of Cadmus,

who

ez AW i^qiiiRt into tni

lirtto btrift Thebes, and poflefled a great part of Gtiiett, togiether t>Hth the iflands of thte JE^e^^ fea, Ttey iilfo fhow ns the conquefts of that other mifehida!!! general Hercules, who built Carthage^ fettlid m Spain, and crefted the pillars of his name at the entrance of the ftreights of Gibraltar-

Befides thefe general obfcinre rem^iJcs, we have fpedal and plain reafohs to think, the Phenicians were the firft inhabitants of Ireland, The moft Mcient IrUh dialed i^ called b£arla i^a Feins, or BitscKA Iff A Fenje, which means the iH^eft of the Fenians, the tongue of the Fenians. The inventor of their letters and one of themott aiicieiit progenJ- t6rs of the Irifh,cotempotary, as it is flippbfed, witR NrMBROb or BkLuS, is called PhAnius a Fausa, lirhich is nothing more than PheniciaA Farfa, or Farfa the ?henician. The word Phrfne, Fene, and Peine, is indeed more like to the WOttJ PCENI which meant the Caf thiginians, aiid'deiitinted ila- Aing lefs than Phenitians, than it is td Phenicians ; and as that was the term the Canhagkns affefted to be call^ by, in order to preferve the generical nattfe of tbeir flrft ]i)rogcnitors ; fo it may be con- jfedhired, th^t the Irifti prcferved Ae famjc term to denote their firft progenitors the Carthagians or ttieriians. It is certain, the truth cannot be fo weir fuppoited on- the part of the Irtlh, they weri tbo' diftautly fituitfed from each other, and the time of their {feparatioii too remote to be obfcrvfed but in- aii obfcure maniier ; whereas the contiguous filuJttibii'of Tyre and Carthage, made the renewal of lirdr fricndihip no \lray difficult ; in effeft, we fiHff k fttifl: and intiolablc union to have always

fubfifted

FIKST INHABITANTS OF nm^ANt). Si

(bbfifted between the Phentciaiis and Garthagini- ans. Herodotus telk ns, that ilrhen Gainb3rfei» meant to wage war witih the Carthagintans, lie wai foieed to defill from that undertaking, by reaftm of a firm declaration made by his chofim Phemcian (bldiers, that they would not fight igainft their coimtrymea ; again^ we read that when Tyre was befieged by Alexander the Great, the Carthagini- ans received the wives and children of the T3nians into tbek city, with the tendemefs of the moft 2(f- fe£lioaate parents ^ we alfo read, that the great Annibal, d&er being obliged to fly firoih his un- grateful country, and on his wafy tb Antiocbu» idng of Syria, he i^^as received with ojpen arms iii Tyre^ and ail honours due to a general of his great reputation, cordially paid him*

The huge piles of ftones, erefled from tkne im- ttiemotial, in feveral parts of Ireland, with immenfe coverings, raifed in dtie order, are dcmbtlefs of ^gan and remote times, and pafs with fome fbir dmidical altars, have the ^enericai name of leab A »A FsiME to this very day; thefe words plainly fipiify the beds of the Pheni or Carthaginiarls ; the Irifti warriors of ancient times are called Fzumt iDrFsiMC, aildFEiNiG at this dsiy fignifies, for that feaibn, any brave warlike man.

In the inveftigation of the true origin of any country^ gfca^ attention is always due to the argu- Bient that (hows it received its firft name, from ane^her ancient people, or from their language?, tfpecially when other probable arguments are pro* d^d to ftiengthen the fame opinion. The firft ami' moft ancient nanbe in Ireland ktioti^ to

foreigners.

64 AN ENQUIRY INTO THE

foreigners^ and avowed by the native was Hi<* HiRNiA and Iernk. Now the word Hibernia iu the Phenician tongue, fignifies wbsts&n island, being compounded of H i B£K,which imf^s weftem, and of NAB an ifland ; a very proper name indeed for Ireland, as it is the mod weftern ifland of the European feas. This name was fo highly efteemed by the writers of old Irifh chronicles, that in de^ fcribing the martial exploits of their principal war* riors and princes, they affefted greatly to com-^ pliment thefe, with the title of champions of the weftern ifle, or princes of the weftern ifland of Europe; thus Curaidhe oileain iarthair, and Otlean iartharach na Hxoirpe, are honourable terms we meet Muth in every page of the old vellum writings. As to the fecond name of Ireland, its etymon can be traced in the Irifli c^iale£^, without the help of the Phenician or any othertongue,althoughitbeidentically the fame with 'theiignificationafligned toHibernia ; it is a complex of the Irifti prepofition iar or ier which means qfteTy behind, and confequently the wejl, accorduMf to the oriental and Irifh manner, beginning at the eaft in front, as iar Jin after that; iar Mumhan weft Munfter, and naoi or aoi an ifland, as aoi Choluim, the ifland of Columba ; fo as to mean weftern ifland. It muft be obferved, that n ferves often in Irifti for an expletive letter, in order to render the found more harmonious, and to avoid a hiatus, which is frequently obferved in the Greek and Latin ; thus we add n to the words, or gold, airgid filver, athar father, by faying go nor agus go nairgid, with gold and with fllver, ar nathair^

our

FIRST INHABit AffTS- OF IRELAND. 65

XMT £ithers &c.&c« 1 am inclined to think, that

» was only an expletive dement in the Phenidan

JNAX an ifland, efpedally as the Hebrew word as is

an ifland, for n is <^n inferted as expletive in

ijiebeginiung, middle, and end of Hebrew words;

thus ScHALMXi tnuKjuil, in the plurah from

acHALAH to be tranquil; slnd to phacad he has

Tifited, they add n twice, and fay ntphicadmou

we have been vifited, and niphicadthen you

kve been vilited, &c. &c.

In fa^ the cuftoms of the oiientftl nations, fo mdly followed here in primitive times' imd flill coQtinaed, are plaufible proofs that fome emigrat- ing cdony of thefe people muft have fettled in Iidand, which, without doubt, can be no other than the offspring of the Phenicians, fettled by Tynan Hercules in Spain. I propofe to enlarge hereafter on thefe cuftoms and manners of the people of Ireland, in a diftinft eflay, and ftiall now only notice a few whkh are in vogue amongft 08, as aUb with them, ib that the reader may be coaled to judge how far they may be depeude'd upon; and if I ftiould hereafter ihalce it appear; that the names of the different iflands' of the Me^ Aerranean, as well as the countries bordeling on that fea^which had beenooeupied by the Phenician emigrators, were originally, if not identically, of the fione literal fignification and forceinthe Ibemd- Gdtic or Irifti lai^uage, with the very firff names givtn thofe countries by thef Phenidahs, imder tlie oommand of Cadmus and Hercules; I am con- vinoed di& drcumftance will incline the reader to bdieve, that thefiiftinhaMta&ts of Iieland'Were a Voi.II. F trilxj

66 AN ENQJJIRT INTO '^'H:?

of the i^OBie Pbcmciaa people j andthh.I sua eaabied to do^ from Calebs Hi&orical and S^tUo- logical RemarJcs on the G^n^ks, paiticuiarl)^ vrhtre he tseats c^ the Pheniciaos.

The Inih call the moath of iU^y BejUiMt, <>r, fire of Belus, and the firft dajrof M»y la ^g^-Oaf^ or thedayof Belus's fire; thc^ calLtbe-eve of thia firft of November oidcbeShaoD|}ina(icor«xiptly pf9r nounced ee owna) or the eve of Samen^ M^hich wa* the Carthaginian name of the Sua. M^» XJhiw^ fays^ he copied an old Iridi glofikiy, where it waa mentioned that the Itiih druids ^vere.ufed to iigfat two fi^lemn fires in every year, thro^g^ which all four-footed beafts were driven, as a. pitfefcvative againfl contagious diftemper& Mr. Martin m 'ki$ hiftory of the weftern ifles of Scotland, whichi, wwo peopled b ytbe ancient Iiiih, obierves^ ^hey hndl deity named Belus or-fieluius, which feems to iiave been the Aflyrian God Bel, and probably ifroQ^rtli^ p^an 4eity comes the 3cots terni cf J^tHcfa^ \ik^ firft day of May, having it$ firft. ^:ffQm:thi» €!bftoni praAifed by the druiil^ in tiitefe 'iHaiizai extinguifhing all the Ares in the pariOiLtKDtil* the tythes werepaid^ and upon payment of thedi^ thb fires were kmdled in each iamily, andtMnret'iffl then:. In thofe days, contiAws the a«llx>iv ihdi^ factors were burnt between t^o fires; ;henccvivfaeB they would expreis a man to be, in :a . gxeA ftia^ht; they fay k is between vo^ firc$^qfBely whickin iheif language theyexpre^thtis, ectirtftathisiDr K^oi^i

p. Ip5^ ,.;..i'^*..

The Iriih ftill preferve: this imfloB^ ftfe tlK?.fire is to this 4ay lighted ui <ht auyikibg.'y^dr.; .. At

. . nren.

FIRST INHABIT ANtS OF IR^LAlA). 6^

men, wpraen and children^ for the fam^ reafou pais through or leap over the facred Gkes, and the cattle are driven through the flames df* tiid^ burning fioiw, on the firft of May* In fome psrts/ as the coondes of Waterfofd and Kilkennjrj'ithe'brldcs, nnrried iiitee the bft -May-day, are^com^llkl to farmlh the young peo^ewkha-lMiU-c^vettedwith grdd lace and another- covered wflh-fiiv^'Iftce, finely adotned with fil ver ta{IUs ; the price ($f ^thefe ibmetime^ aknount^ to two g^ne^j fhefe 'btilis, (be f3rnibol8 of. the Snti and Moon» iare'fuQy^ded ffi a hoop ornamented with flowers/ whi^h hoop feprefents the drcillajpath of Belus- ot. the Sim ; and in this manner, they walk inprac^llKHfi {roiii houfe to Houfe. On the eve of St. John adother bonfire 19 Hghted univerfally through the kingdom; (HI thfe night every family extinguiflies the fire, wfaich muft be relighted f^om'tbe bonfire; a lighted (tick is alfo thrown with fr^te^nity intb thel!if£birge garden, to caufe the roots to grow, and the ycfting j^ple run through 6ne aiibther with ligKfcd (licks in their hands. This is net a pagan cqftom, biit handed down from the firft eftabliftiment of Chrit tianity on the con^nent ; for tBough the council of Elvira aboliihed the<!ilfto«iofmoft of the pagan fires, which had continued fome centuries aftir Cbtiftianity; the illuminiE^ion of the eve of St. John the Bapiift ftiU €oniinifed> the tradition of winch is coeval -tvith the 'prediflidft he made of Jefii* Chrift ; which fire St. Bernard notices to his fraternity, was become fo xinl verfally praiiifed in Mistime, that it was evenobferved *tiiiong the Saiatoi^aBdTiirkft* SeeHomil. in fell loan. Bapt. ^ » F 2 Som^

6i AN ENQUIRY IfiTQ THE .

Some Mountains in UUter flill bear the name ofBel-tiM; but in t]tie fouthern. part of the king- dqm. the name .mote frequeatly occurs* J^t the foot of Knocmaoldown mountain, n^ar Clogheei in cqr oCTipperaiy^ is Logh Bheal or Bdus'd Lalce, on ^tbejVlbanmhullagh mountains; not; far dilUmi from thift lake, is Barn na Bhcal a mullach, i e. the Gap of Belus on the fummit ; the ufual falutatioi of the cpnupon people was Bei dc dhuii, the Goi Belus to you; themeaning of which not beii^ ua <Ierftood by the prefeQt race, they ^oyr/ay j&z/ Dbia dkdt^ which.they interpret thu% a mark froq God to you; bal fignifyiog 9 fppi or. bleniifh, . very improper term, for a (alutation ; tbist is pecu liar to ^ counties of Waterford and Kilkenny.

The iponth of M^y iiras indeed the inoft prope ftafon of the year to acknowledge the betibeficeni favours of Belus or thc.Sun>; as the month of No vembet was, to acknowledge their gratitude tc the fame deity ; becaufe in May, that great plane begins to beautify thefpceof die earth, to nouiifl its decayed plants and vegetables, and to put Hfi and warmth into its animal beings; and iuNoveiQ ber the harvcft and the vintage is gathered inti the barn. Hence of all created objects, that plane deferved moil to be noticed and loved by rationa fublunary beings, becaufe its benign influeno produced them health of body, and <m acceptable prc^peA of nouriihment. And hence it was^with out doubt, that almoft every pagan nation adom this beautiful planet as the parent of nature, unde diflerent names and appellaticM[is ; a religion, whid as Mr. Young obferves in his RevefaUon^ p, 35

tool

f

PikST iNHABltANrs OF IRELAKD- 69

took its rife in Chatdea, was loon carried into ^gypt, and from thence to Greece ; it fptead ^tfelf alfo to the moft dift.mt parts of the worid, and infefied not only the eaflem but the weftem Scythians and Tartars, but the Mexicans too, for the Spaniaids found it there. (See Gage'« new Survey of the Weft Indies, ch. 1 2.) Even Ae defoendants of Shem, whofc pofterity preferved the memory of the true God for a longer time than thofe of Ham or Japhet, at length transferred tbdr homage to the Sun and Moon. (Pbotius ex Ctelia. Q^Curt. 1. 8* c. 9. Philoft. k 3. ch. 35.)

The ancient pradice of adoring the Sun by the fvmbol of fire, was firll introduced into the worid by Nhnbrod^ otherwife called Baal or Belus, which in the Hebrew, Syriac and Phenician, literally meant lord, or maften Belus is juftly conlidered by the learned to be the firft who withdrew a con- fiderable number of people, employed by him in building Babylon, from the true worihip of God to the fpurious adoration of the Smi by fire. This idolatrous mode of worihip foon overfpread the earth, the Chanaanites or Phenidans obferved it in the fame manner with the pagan Irifh.. We read in the fourth book of Kings, that they ferved Baalj-and religioufly paffed their fonsand daughters through his fire, in which they were imitated by the idolatrous Ifraelites. We alio read in the fame boolc,that Acharkingof Ifraelisblamed for having religioufly paflfed his fon through the facred pagan fire ; and it may be inferred from the faid paflage that many Ifraelitifh kings provokied God, by the fame idolatrous pra<51ice.

The

7C .A^f INQUIRY INTO THE

The appellative of Nembrod given alfo to Belu^ which^according to liidonts literally iignifiest]riam (Nembrod tyraunum iigni&cat. Etym. 1. 17.) can more naturally and more conformably to ancient mythology, be inveftigated and cleared up in the Iriih language. It, is a complex of tiem heaven^ and^ror/captivity^infomuch that both words joined together by way of attrfl^ute to Belus grandfon of Chgm^ .plainly fignify captivator of heaven, of Calicaj^ijvaiorj or Qe/oriim expugnatof. The Greek and X^din poets whodefcribe the war of the giant(» ag^inft..the'gpdsy ufeno ilronger exprefficHi to paint the iufdience of the former, than Calas expug-^ nar€ vglcbant. Homer in his firft Iliad introduces Venus, who reminds Jupiter of her fervices, bjr having delivered him from his captivity and chains^ through herinfluenceonthegiantBriareus. Beiides this argument, it further appears £rom the join^ authority of feveral learned commentatovs on the firft book d£ .^jen^fia, that Belus had not the epithet Nembrod Of Nimbrod given him, until the time of his impious undertaking in bufldingdlie tower, whichbroqghtdown upon him and his aceomj^ices^ the imnKdi^t^ vengeance of God, notooly by the total dj^oHihment of that edifice, but adfo by ^ multij^k^tk^ of the firft language into feveral' dialed ti]tai wercj^l cmderftood by the three fons cifKoab*.! tBidoiip«ofupra citato.) Now if we CQtifidl^JB^lu^affer'dbiis injurious undertaking, and j^ijA: ^ii^ipp of fo many thoufond people mto i4Q}^Fy:and rebdlion agaioft God, we w31 readily i^OPC^dew be .was tbex)nly perfon living, that moil

^ defer ved

FmST INHABIT ANtS Of? IRELAND. 7 c

defervcd the attribute of Nembrod or Heaven- Coptxvator.

If the Phenidans cauie rrom Spaib to Ireland, it IB probable thty firft planted therofelves in the ibuthem parts of the ifland ; accordingly I find fome plaufible teaftttiA to tlunk their chief lettle- laeut muft have been in a large diftriA ct the county of Cork, which comprehends the entire hitmiy of Ferinoy and the half barony of Condons. This diftridt was anciently called Magh-Fxinx,, literally meaning the {dains of the Phenians^ I^HAWio-MAOUs ; the inhabitants were always called FxARA Maigh Fxtns^ afterwards the word l^hebe was left out, as making the name too tedious, and only a part of the compound preferved ^ the modems, who to this day call it Fsara« Maigh, in Engliih-FERMor.

The liber Lecsmus calls the inhabitants Fir magh FtiN£ ; the author or compiler of the annals of Inaisfalien, at the year of Chrift 254, mentions (hat FiachaMuillethan,provincialking of Monfter, beftowcd this country called Magh-Feine to the celebrated druid Mogruth ; but the author of the Vlfter book, in the Liber Lecanus, is more exa£l; he i&eDtions that in confideration of this druid's advice aod infhience over Cormac foa of Con of the hun- dred battles, to give hoftages to Fiacha Muillethan, after Corraac's iignal defeat at the battle of Dun Claire, the Momonian prince gave him and his pofterity for ever, the lands called Magh mac [iWrce, which was afterwards called Dal-Mog- ^h, and formed only a part of Magh-Feine; it thus in vcifc t

Do

7a AN ENQ^UIRY INTO THE

Do breat dofdm iar tiadlin; as lin cath do bicb Saor dilfe Muighe mic Neircaoi ; do is dadiloio

CO bratb* He granted bim after the return ont of tbe field of battle the freehold property of Magb ^lac Nerce, for him and his race perpetually. Beiides.the affinity, or rather fitnilatity of names, there are ftill to be difcovcred in the fame diftrid^ olher plain monuments of Chanaaniticor Pheniciaa fafliioB, fuch as are defcribed by Dom Cahnet in his learned comments on the pentateecb ; I mean^ large pillars of nide ftone perpendicularly ereAed either feparately, or joined with others in fquares and circles, whereof fome are placed as fupporter* to flat flones of a furpriiing magnitude, either in aninclinedor horizontal pofition. TheChanaanitkr altars which the people of God were commanded to demolifh, feem to have been of this kind o^ ftruflure. (Deut. 7. 5. Exod^ 23, 24.) It is indeeA^ remarkable, that on the fumniit of many h^fai^ places round thecountry of Magh-Phkine, we heaps of Hones joined together, with a huge ftf on the top as a plat-form, whereon, it b prrrhnHr^ the builders immolated their vi£)ims, and lighl their lacred fires in honour of Belus. Thefe with< doubt were of the fame nature with the high of the children of Chanaan or the Phenicians, communicated the ufe of them to the rebellicHBH Jews, for which they are fo frequently and tBU feverely reprimanded by Almighty God. . -^

The moft remarkable monument of Ph< tafie in this part of the iiland, is to be feen on road leading from Fermoy to Glanworth, fituai

FIRST INHABITANTS OF IRELAND. 73

iii a plain or even country. Smith in his hiftory ^ the county of Cork, voL 2. p. 409, has given a very imperfed drawing and defcription of this work ; he fays it is called by the country people Laha-cally or Hag's bed, that the people fay it belonged to a giantefs ; and he concludes with his opinion, that it is the tomb of one of the ancient kings of Fermoy, and was erected in the ages of Chriftianity ; this laft wife conjedure, he acknow- ledges, arifes from its lying cqfi and wejf.

The ingenious and learned antiquary, governor Pownal, has favoured us with an accurate drawing and defcription of another Phenician monument or fcpnlchral taphos, at New-Grange, near Droghech, .gnd of the Phenician infcription on one of the ftones. See Archaeolog. Soc. Antiq. Lond. vol. 2*

If the Tyrian Hercules, or any of the principal defcendants of the Phenician colony he brought with him to Spain and the European illes, were b^ers of the firft people that inhabited this iilaod; thefolemn worihip and faciifices perform- ed: by them, may have been very agieeable to the pure patriarchal religion. And as Tyre, whereof Hercules was founder according to Herodotus, is mentioned in fcripture as a well fortified city in Jofhua's time ; and it feems alfo probable, that all the Chanaanites hrjd not as yet fallen into idolatry, but that many of them liill worihipped the true God ; fo we may conclude, that Hercules may poflibly have been a worftiipper of the true God, as well as Abimelech king of Gerar and his fub- je£is, who were alfo Chanaaneans or Phenicians. The purity of oi^r Phenician's worihip gains more advantage.

74 AN ENQUIRY I|»TO THE

advantage, if ws- allow him to have been cotein^ fiontfy with Abrahaiki) Ifaac, or Jacobs as Dr, Stiikdey pretends ; or as the authors of the Univer- fel Hiftory affirm, faying, that Tyri^n ^ercuie$ £ounihed long before the Je>wiih Law puUifhed hf Mofes. (See Stukeley on Stonehenge. tJn. liift. vol. !• p. 313. note T.)

But though tht worftup of God was adulterated, and even idolatry fubflituted in it^ room, never- thelefs it is certain, the Iblemnity and ei:teFii>r BKxfe of facrifice might ftill have been retained pure and conformable to the patriarchal reli^dn.

I cannot dofe this fhort efiay better than with the following remarks. No woman's name is moi^ comtnon in IrelaiKl, among the old natives, than riiat which was Dido's proper Punic or Phenician name, accoi*ding to Solious and others ; I mean Elima, a word which the old Irifh, according to the geniire of their language, have cont rafted inib Ens, as they havt the mafculine name Dartus into Daire. The names of the three great rivers Seannon, SuiR and Noir, are alfo of oriental radix; Se:anan,or asil is dow pronouuGcdShann<:5ift, toeans literally the old river or water; in Arabit, Jknisold^ letas, and ain a fountain, fpriiig, or ibutve, fons. Star was an eaftern name, ad fu-^ »ufam iS«r. Boehart Phal. c. 8. Noit from iS&Ar

Ifuvius. Idem.

• Bela Pumce et Arabice Vorttx^o naves abfor- l)entur. Yitvac^ Bela-fearfad now Belfaft, a dali- gerous harbour in the north of Ireland ; farfiu^ Syriacc CMtium, the mouth of a haven ; fo alfo the ftrand in Cork b^rbtmr near RoftiUon, opening to

Middleton

FIRST INHABITANTS OF IRELAND. 75

^Vliddleton river, was anciently called belajmrfad ; ^^iCDce the north and fouth bulls of the bay <^ XDublin, &c« &c.

In a future number, I will produce fuch proofs ^uid veftiges of an Iberian or Spanifh colony an- -^ently fettled in Ireland, as may be reafonably prefumed of fome weight, in the eyes of an impar- tial reader, to fupport the old tradition of our l>ards and antiquarians on that head, in conjim£Uon with, and in confirmation of Mr. Lhwyd's argu- ment on the fame fubjed. Some of thefe veftiges of a Spanifh colony in Ireland, have been already touched on by other writers, fuch as Mr, Cambden, who thinks to find the hucenjii and Coficaniof Spain, in the Luceni and Congani, which Ptolemy places in the fouth-weft of Ireland, facing Spain. The marks and veftiges I have to offer, appear more plain, more natural, and more ftriking.

N .1

-• • •

a/-.

'1

» • • ■ ■ t

i I <

'olleBanea de Rebus Hibermcts.

N U M BE R VI.

CONTAINING,

!• An Essay on the Study of Irish Antiqjtitibs.

IT. A Dissertation on the Round Towsrs in Ikeland*

UL Memoirs of Dunamasb and Shban Castlb^ ID the Quben's County.

By EDWARD LEDWICH, L-L-B.

Vicar ofAoHABOB in the Qjj b b m's C o u n t y» and

SOCIBT. AliTI(X& HiB. SOC.

DUBLIN: LUKE WHITE.

lf,DCG>LZZZyiI«

T O

CHARLES COOTE, D.D.

D£AN OF KILFSNORA:

THIS

SIXTH NUMBER

4

OF THE

COLLECTANEA

D£

REB^S HIBERNICIS

IS INSCRIBED,

BT HIS MOST OBXOUMT AMD HVMBLX SXftVAMT*

E.L.

!■ \

• » .-

A N

E

A

Y

ON THE

STUDY

O P

IRISH ANTIQUITIES.

By EDWARD LEDWICH, L.L.B.

\'iCAR of AoHABOB in the Qubbn's Covmty.

G

9

t r

. ,'

' ; .'

.^1

"^ S S A Y

ON THE

STUDY

O F

IRISH ANTIQJJITIES.

jN ATI on a L antiquities have always engag- ed the attention of every learned and poliflied people. The inquiries of (a) Pfammitichiis into the original language, whatever truth may be in the anecdote, ihows that fuch difquifitions were not unufual in former times, nor in the flouriih* ing periods of andeilt empires.

QUeftions involving national honour luturally raife the flame of patriotifm in every breaft, and produce contefls between kingdoms concerning their andquides. Intemperate zeal led to the fabric cadon of fi£Utious annals, and the wild {b) delufions of romantic hiflory. Thefe excefles created a

G 2 contempt

(^ Herod. Enterp.

H) *A(m)k «i KMt w^r0t SiAnWiK viuvlmi. ApoUon. Argon. lib. 4. is an early inllance of what is alledged. To which may be added, what is (aid of the Athenian Auto^onoi in Pamanias, Corinth, pag. 1 10. edit SylborglL Much snort ^ to the lame purpofe^ might be produced.

84 ONTHESTUDTOF

contempt of the learniDg, the cuftoms and man- ners of remote limes. W hen civilization was per- ie£l«d, and found knowledge and juft criticifm enabled mankind to form proper difcriminations> reafon Ibon recovered her equilibrium ; a calm review of thefe fubjcfts fucceeded, and the pro- grefs of mankind from barbarifm to civility^ through aM the fubordinate details of the arts and fciences, became, as it ever will be, the objedl of manly and rational invcftigation ; and as a favourite ftudy, which it is at this day, found univerfal countenance and encouragement.

It was the love of glory and of bis country, traits the mofl confpicuous in the charafter of king Henry VIII. that didated to him the ap- pointment of {c) Lei and to the office of Royal Antiquary. The confequence was happily decilive, in collefling a (rf) body of men of real learning, and preferving from impending definition, innume- rable and valuable literary monuments. Much more might have been done, did not an undefined fyftem of government, the pride of feudal gran- deur, the intruiions of popular importance and religioushea ts, difturb the reignsof Queen Elizabeth and her fuccetfors : thefe recited grotmdlefs jea- loufies of their fubjedb, and made them apprehend {e) danger from the examination of a worm-eaten miffal or a mufty charter. Thefe political terrors vanifhed at the Revolution, but it was not before the acceffion of the illuftrious houfe of Bi-unfwick,

that

(0 Biographia Brirannica, article, Lcland. (d) Ibid. articJe, Agard. (#) Ibid, articicy Sj^lman.

IRISH ANTIQJJITIES. 85

tlEat.antiquities, with every ufeful and ornamental l>rai:ich of knowledge> received regal patronage. TjL ivas in the reign of king George U. that the £!cKziety of antiquaries of London was incorpo-

To the animated exertions of individuals^ and t:lie munificent protection of a few noblemen and gentlemen, is England indebted for that great laody of antient records and documents to be founnd in the Britifli mufeum, and in the other public and private libraries of that kingdom. Un- fortunately for Ireland, the fame iervice was not rendered to her by any of her fons, except in a partial degree. A prey to the mercilefs ravages of the Oilmen; plundered by the (fj Englifh advent u* ^rs; convulfed and torn by domeftic broils ; fhe fl^^red every viciflitude of human mifery, and pre- ferved fmall remains of that piety and learning H^hich made her the mart of literature and the admi<r ration of Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries. To retain the natives in their faith, the eccle- ^^ics, of the Romifti profeffion, coUefted and Pj^liflied the lives of their (g) faints and collateral ^ftorical pieces. In thefe, and in the fubfequent "^fexice of them, many points of national antiquities ^cre difcufled and afcertained. Manufcripts were ^ ^^cAed for and carefully examined, copies of "^^Ul multiplied, and a foundation was laid for the

elegant

■

^ ^/;See Girddus Cambrenns, Bxpug. lib. 2 cap. 35. who *P^^ks of Uic anions of his countrymen, with indignant

[^) (Uligion of tbe antient Iriffa by primate Uflier, in die

k

i6 Ol4 THE STUDY OF

elegant fuperftrufhire reared hf Sir James Wave. It is not eafy to determine, whether he meritt moft praiiib for the peifpicuous diviiion of his work, or for the accuracy and eittent with which he treats it. The whole evinces a natural turn for fuch ftudiai, iad an eminent difplay of abilities and erudition. Yet ftill it muft be confidered as an mfant un- dertaking, and very far from exhaufting the vari- ous topics it comprehends. Neither the genius or induftry of any one man is adequate to the tho- rough elucidation of the antiquities of a country ; the additions to Cambden and Ware prove this. The talents of mankind are fo difierent, and fuc- ceft is fo likely to attend that purfuit to which na- ture prompts, that we are fure of information and entertainment, where ingenuity and eruditk>n unite in handling a fingle fubje£l. To encourage (Uch exertions, and to coUe^i the fcattered rays of icience, focieties have been formed throughout Europe. Ireland has had her phylico-hiftorical and antiquarian focieties : under the aufpices of the firft, the hiftoriesof the counties of Down, Water- ford, Qjrk and Kerry have appeared; and under that of the latter, the excellent produdions of lieutenant colonel Charles Vallancey . Thefe bloC- foms gave enlivening hopes, but a fatal languor has hitherto blafted the faireft fruit of Irifh litera- ture; it is as yet a ftranger to the cheering beams of public or privateprote£lion. While every nation of Europe is poliftiing its antiquities, and making new difeoveries, Ireland abounding in learned men and in curiofities of every kind, remains to the nati^'aUft aA4 ant^uariaa a terra incognita, a

region

IRISH ANTIQUltrfei. g;

region unexplored. A few fparkfl of ^iatrioftic ar- dour are alone wanting to (how its latent treaiurett» and elevate it to a rank it has always jidfiy claimed^ but never enjoyed. Undifnrayed by this retvo- ^, the goitlemen aflbdated in the prefent work irebpfyyin contemplating a tafte and fpirit now ppevalent^ very different from thofe of former ages* They obferve with what avidity the foreign anti- qcuuun refearches are read; lior can they pay Aeir couDtrymen To ill a compliment, or t^tray fych <fiffidence of themfelves, as to knagiae, thM idM«ar bbom will be pafied over witl^ in£fierebci or negle&

As it has fallen to the tot of the writer to Vfndi- cate the Ihidies of his brethren, and to addrds diA Public on this occafion, he humbly begs ihitir m^ ^l^nce to the following pages, defigi^ff to fiiow ^t has and maybe done towards the Sliiftrsiiidil ^Iiiftx antiquities ; and which, for greater xdear- ^^ are dtirown undier diftinft titles,

BREHON LAWS,

fiarredfromeveryintercourfe withthe natives by ^ moft penal ftatutes, the Engliftx knew but little ^f ^lieir jurifprudence and municip^ reguUtions ; ^^ry mention of their laws is, confequently, in terms of deteftation. As forfeitures were no part of Ibc Brehonic infiitutes, the Englifh^ who were ^^Wiftantly enriching themfelves by the delinquen* dea of the natives, without doubt, reprobated a fyftcm fo unfavourable to their fchemes, and with- out minutely examining, pronounced it a lewd

cuft0m%

S8 ONTHJESTUPTQF

cuftom. Tlieiiotices concerning it, incur wrU^eFS^ are few arvd general. Campion- whofework.fip- peared in J 5 70, tells us : {h) " Other lawyers the/ Irifti have, liable to certain faaiilies, w^ipb,. After the pufioip of the. country, determine, an<J Judge caufeSr .Thefe confider of wrongs offered apd receivied. .among their neighhJours ; be it murder, or feloEiy, or trefpafs, all is redeemed by compo- fition. The Breighoon, fo they call this kind of lawyer, fitteth him down on a bank, the lords and gentlemen at variance round him." To thi^ $tani-* hurft, writing in i584> adds, (ij " That they arc intirely unacquainted with the Englilh, the canon andcivil laws: that their determinations are found- ed on no folid rules, but on precedents fan&ified by tim^ and ufage, and that thefe are kept pro- fouiidf^fcrets, whereby they acquire admiration and preferve their influence." {k) Sir J ames Ware, in 1654, .allows them fome Ikill in the canon and civil law, and confirms what is faid of their decrees

being

(*) fag. 19.

(f) Ucuntur ad tales lites aeftimandas quibufdam arbitns, quos till Brehonios appellant. Ifti funtex una familia pro- feminatiy intelligentiam juris Britannici non habent» civilis etiam ac pontificalis imperitidimi. Rctinent folummodo do- meftica pfephtfrnata, ufu & diuturnitate corroborata, quorum aBimadverfiooe, artem aliquam ex rebus fidlis comnieQ* titiifque conflatam pepererunt, quam nullo mocto divulgart patiuntur, fed fibimetipfis, veiuti abftrufa atque abdita myf teria a communi hominum fenin remotidiisa, earn retervant. Atque ob vanam hanc reconditae cognitionis ppinionem, eorum nomen ab imperita plebicula (quae citius ollentatione quam vera fimpltcitate capitur) valde celebratur. Pag. 37. See what is faid of the Brehon O'Briflan, Colle^anea, No. If. pag. 159.

(^) Ex prxfcripds et confuetndinibus quibufdam Hiberni- CIS fe dirigebant. Antiq. cap. 8. pag. 42.

IRISH ANTIQUITIES. 89

being conformable to national cufloms and pie- fcriptioDS. In another place this author fays, (I) ^^ I am informed there are, at this day ex- tant, many volumes, in which the laws of fome of the antient kings of Ireland, before the arri- val of the Englifh, are written in the Irifh lan- guage. Thefe without doubt are very ufefiil for the difcovery of the form of government among the antient Irifh, and deferve a thorough fearch,** Tbk with a few particulars more is all that thol^ writers knew, or thought proper to communicate of our civil polity ; and how meagre an account it is, every one may eafily judge. It was re&rved for the learnpd pen of colonel Vallancey to do juftice to fo curious and interefting a fubjed. With a knowledge of the Irifli language to which few have arrived, he was enabled to read, and was fedulous in procuring the moft antient MSS. Hence he has given fuch a view of our legal infti- tuiions' in the third and fourth numbers of this CoDeftanea, as frees us from the charge of barba- rifin, and our Brehons from that of ignorance; and he has proved by an extraft of confidcrablc* lei^h, that the latter conduced themfelves, in their juridical decifions by rules, neither capricious^ uncertain or oppreffive.

We have only to lament, that other indifpen- iable avocations interrupted his labours, and de- prived the puUic of larger fpecimens of his erudi- lion. However it will be fome partial confblation to inform them, that he has promifed his aid to

this

(IJ Antiquities of Ireland, chap. 1 1. peg* 69.

ajidiQ the <ir\.v^,mne Greeks ot Wia" , , ^ o^- - of an a^P^*^^' *,jjine ufe of the '^^'^/p.iedoni

IRISH ANTIQUITl£«. pt

ietlOT muft have been foon wafted over into Ice* isuid. A continual intercourfe was maintained be^ ^"^wm Ae inhabitants of the two countries ; and Ireland muft certainly have received an alphabet before the period which is conftantiy affigned for tiic iotrodudtion of it, even one or two centuries^ at leaft, before the days of St, Patrick. And the Oomiih, theWelfti, the Scotch and the I rifh lan- guages have, from that period to the prefent, in- vaiiably ufisd .the characters of the Romans in 'vrriting.''

Our antiquarians endeavour, with nnavailing

paios, to prove, that the prefent Irifh elements

bave not the leaft rcfemblance to the Greek or

Roman : whereas it is manifeft they are the cor*

rupt latin letters of the fixth century, as given in

Bernard's 20th, 21 ft, and 22d tables improved by

the learned DoAor Morton. 60 far Mr. Whitaker's

afetion is indifputable. The period of their in-

troduAion feems likewife accurately ftated. We

bave the authority of («) Csefar for the Druids

nfing the Greek letters in fecular concerns. Rve

hundred and forty-three years before the chriftian

«ra, according to the Samaritan chronology, the

I^hoocan colony arrived at Marfeilles. Grecian

Dunncrs foon produced a wonderful change in the

country and its inhabitants. The Gauls foon laid

^ their barbarifm, built cities and applied

^ agncultare : — ut non Gracciam in Galliam

«i»gialfe, led Gallia in Grseciam tranflata videre-

^w, fays (0) Juftin. Whether the Druids ufed

the

W Lib. 6.

(•] Lib. 43. cap. 4. Cicer. pro Flacco.

92 ON THE STUDY OF

the Greek language, or the letters alone, ^ pcni^rt very much agitated among the {f) leamedi ^» — i may allow them to be acquainted with the GreelS alphabet at an early age.

But this knowledge of the Greek and Roma^Ki elements, by no means fuperfeded or eztinguifl^-> ed the ufe of their more antient ones among tk^ Druids : the latter were religioufly preferved, an^ carefully handed down from the remoteft ages to a late period, and may be ranked among the al-- phabets of the Noachidae hinted at by Mr. Whit- aker. The difcovery of thefe elements, after an oblivion of many centuries, is certainly the moft curious, valuable and ufeful in the compafs of mo- dem literature ; and is due to the fagacity anci perfeverance of an ingenious aifociate. Private friendftiip, in this inftance, has operated publico advantage. Anxious to promote the fucceis o^ a work which the writer warmly efpoufed, thijIE learned man freely furrendered the fruits of hi* labour, and confen ted to their publication ; without anticip>ating that event, it may be proper to gra? tify the antiquarian with a few particulars.

He has given from manufcripts, ftone-croffes, fepulchral and monumental infcriptions, all accu- rately noted and delineated, the Bobeloth lettpi^ andfhown their ordef, charader, power and name. The latter he has decompofed, and by the judici-* ous ufe of etymology, difcovered theireaftem ori- gination, and clearly pointed out the progrefs of

letters.

(f>) Burton. Grace, ling. hif!. pag. 19. and the authors cited by him. Sdden. Janus, pag. 22.

IRISH ANTIQJJITIES. 93

letters from pidtures to fymbols. This Bobcloth was the vulgar chara£ler of the Druids, and fa- vours of the earlieft antiquity : but they had ano- thercharaAcr called Oghman, appropriated to their hierogrammatic writii^s ; this has hitherto beea efteemcd nothing but cyi^ers, or unmeaning flou- riihcs ; but he has confuted this notion from let- tered remains! The utility of this difcovery will be very extenfive, as it enables us to unfold an^ tieot knowledge wrapped up in unknown letters. It is really furpriling, that no one had turned bis thoughts this way and enquired after Dniidic IcarDiog, of which confiderable Ipecimens are ex- tant, particularly atNew-Grangc, in the county of Meath, and on the crofles at Caflledermot, in the county of Kildare. Ware does not fo much as nxaition the Bobeloth, and of the (q) Ogham, he dryly lays, the antients writ their fecrets in it. Mr. O'Connor alfo pafles it over; OFlaherty and Harris remind us, that the Irifh had acha- rafier called Bobeloth. (r) Colonel Vallancey, whofc penetration nothing can efcape, is more explicit and to the purpofe. Indeed it cannot be thought ftrange that writers prepoflefled in favour of the antiquity and originality of the prelent Irifh elements, ihoi^d not trouble th^nfelves in fearch- ing after others.

MODES

(?) Antiquic. cap. 2. p. 1 2.

. W Grammar, pag. 2. *• The Bethluifnion was the an- ient order, and continued fo to be till chriilianity was ^'^onmehly propagated in Ireland. This order wa» altered ^ien ue language began to be mixed in Greece." Remains ^J^piiet, pag. 404. How ignorant of the matter I

94 ON THE STUDY OF

MODES or INTERMENT.

The various modes of fepulture padlifed by our anceftors form a pleafing and exteniive depart- ment in our antiquities. Sir James Ware has (a) floated it fuperficially ; but {b) Mr. Harris, with indefatigable induftry, has made many valuable additions. The following remarks are given to excite attention, and as a fpedmea of what here- after may be executed on a larger fcale.

First Epoch. Wormius has made a ttij^ divifionof the modes of interment ; ' it is certainly ndt accurate, but whatever contributes to throw a confiifed fubjefl into order has its u(e, and muft elucidateit. Cremarionhe fpeaks of firft. Burning the body after death was imiverfally prevalent in Europe in the earlieft ages. It was (c) confefledly lb in Ireland. There is a veiy condfe, but ob- je^onable, manner of accounting for this and odier oriental cuftoms, by faying they were intro- duced by Phenician colonies or Carthaginian tra^ ders. We can, in the prefent inftance, recur to other and more fatisfadory evidence.

Odin, the great legiflator and deity of the nor* them nations, arrived in Europe, with his Afiaric Goths,(rf) twenty-four yearsbefore the chriflian era;

his

(a) Antiquit. cap. 32. pag. 348.

(^) Edition of Ware, pag. 1 40.

M Harris's Ware, fupra. Pomp. Mela, &c. ^ W la cttjus tempera incidic Odinut, Afiattcx immigra- tionis, fa6Ue umo 24 ante natum Chriftodi, anteiignanas. Crymog. Arag. Jon. lib. i. cap. 4.

IRISH ANTIQjnTIES. 95

^ laws re(pe£)iiig funeral folemnities, here follow: (^) The bodies of the dead with their goods are to be burnt, and the people admoniihed, that this Gods will receive thofe iacrifices widi more difiick guiihed favcAir, in proportion to their value amd quantity. Great tumuli or barrows are to be raiied over chiefs^ and large ftones to be fet up for thoie who performed illuftrious aAions. His own body was burnt, and with it much gold and iilver» (f) Odm's country was Geoi^a on the confines oC Perfia^ whore the Sabean inftit^Utea, fiillpreferved b7 the Brachmans, were in ufe ; fome of the pdn^ opidof their t^iets were the adoratioin of the fun» the bonung of their children and their dead.

The celebrity of this leader, deified by hit C0uotrymen, the actions and conquefts of hisheroic Alx, and the beftowing the al}^abetic elementi oa a nide people, were motives fufficient to ezdte adoaraticm and eftablifh his laws. They were adoptsd in pai} of Germany, in Sweden, Den^ mark and' Norway, and muft have foon found their way to the Britifh illes, where numeroua vd^of cremation ftill remain. This hypothefis is ix^t deftitute of authority. Yet we may with confidence afcend higher, and fay, that Sabeifin

was

[t] llle Wodenus, legem de mortuis, una cum eorum bonis comburendis tulic, monuitquc, ut eo magis honorific^ a Diis acciperentur* qno phira bona comburerentor. Man- <^vitetiain» ut opcimatibus magnos tumulos in memoriam ^gerent, atque ut eorum fepulchris, qui egregia patraT- felt, magnos lapides fuperponerent. Vi^oden Sigcuni obiit, niagnoque honore» cum multo auro et. argento, crematus A Me&n. ex chron. antiq. Suegothico. Sturlcfoa to tbe lame Purpofe.

(/) Wartm's Hiftory of Englift Poetrj^ dHT. 1 .

0 ON THE STUDY OF

was predominant in the Eaft fo nearly as the days of Abraham, and was carried by the primeval colonifts of Europe to their various fetdements ; il is therefore no groundlefs conjefture to derive (g) many Druidic ufages from this fource ; they are plainly of eaftem origination, let their tranfitinto the weftem world be fettled as it may. Our Cromleac, oaken groves, upright ftones and coped cams refer to oriental fuperllition ; nor would the writer have hefitated to fay the fame of our Round Towers in the enfuing differtation, was there any proof of our acquaintance with architedure in tl:^ ages antecedent to thofe afligned for their ere^on^ Odin might then have done no more than give a new fanftion to praflices long before introduced. In Wormius's age of cremation, the body re- duced to aihes was placed in an urn and laid in the earth, over which a {h) conical mound was raifed, juft fufficient to indicate what was under it. The urn is always of baked clay, cand the mould- ings round the rim often ihow both tafte and de> fign. Whatever we may concejvc of the barba- rifm of thofe ages, they were by no means fo rude and ignorant as is generally imagined; we have (/) claflical authority that the Celts ufed earthendifhes at their tables, and pottery feems to have been well underftood. Ware, Harris, Molyneux and Smith give numberlefs inflances of cremation among us, and others daily occur.

Skcond

(f) Warton, fupra.

(^) Rudiores ex Tola terra iikrotundicatem & conum con* gefta. Worm. Monum. Danic. (i) Scrab. lib. 4. i$5. Adien. Diepnoibp. lib. 4. cap. i a.

IRISH ANTlQJtlTlES. 97

SicoM ti Efocr. This Wormius calh the age of hillocks ; when grander and more laboured fcpalchrts wert formed, of confiderable (*) height and futtt>andcd mth rows of ftones. If jhe laws of Odin were oblerved, the praftices of the flrft and fecond epochas were the fame. Wormius gwonds t6c diftin6tf on on the bodies being con- figwd to the earth whole in the latter, which had it been regular, made a material difference; but ftclctons and urns full of burnt bones are fre- qiiendy found in the fame cemetery, which proves 4e impoffibility of defining the duration of a qftom, when it is flu6batliig and about to give way to a new one. The time when burtiiiig was ttdumged for burying in Ireland, was, according toouf hiftorians, in the reign of EochacDb, fourteeix ycatt before Chrift. There is reafon to believe, ciemarion was not difufed for many yean after, as PomponiuS Mela^ wKo lived in the firft Century of Chriftianity, tdl Us Ae Druids ufed b6th inodcs of interment. So that probably not before the fiill eftablUhmeft of the Chriftian religion b this ffle did cremation intirely Ceafe. It was again re- eved during the domination of the Oftmen here, in the nintli and tenth centuries, who were then pagans. On account of this laft circumftance, it is no cafy matter to afcertain the date of thole

H The

Mj Arcnam ct terrain ezaggerando ufqus dam ia juftam n^ticali infurgerent altitudinem. — Etiam tumttlos ipfos ta in iipice <|uam «iral bufim Yiftiidft ttagnitudiais ci&iere frxu-Secundii flctas, qua cmdaY«ra integra «t aon cremata comfob omamentU ia circuloex grandioribus coafeda (axis, JottiWt. Worm, fupra. ^

98 ON THE STUDY OF

Iheold oriental cuftombecomlngunfafhionable in this fecond epochs a new ftyle in the couftruO' tion of fepulchres and difpoiing ot ihebody, b^an. While cremation continued, an elegant campani- form hollow artificially made in the earth, as the barrowsat Stonehenge are> and covered by a l^ht tumiilus, feeuied a fui table receptacle for an um and its cineritious contents. This was the idea of ' the Romans, as appears by their (/) Columbaria. Vaft coacervations of clay and Hones were efteem- ed propel" and graceful for the new mode. l*he tomb^ of the greateil leaders at firft were humble, but in procefs of time, fays (tn) Wormius, more labour was bellowed on them.

The fplendour of perfonal valour, of great ex- ploits, and exteniive conquefts, will ever give a brilliancy, tp ^he memory of illuftrious princes, and create a profound veneration for them. Odin gave the names of his twelve (») deified com- panicKDS tp his children, to perpetuate this fuper- natural refpedl. From thefe the northern kings (o) traced their pedigree. Divms honours were paid to them, and the places ot their interment became places of worfhip. The monftrous obe- lifks, that compofe the tomb of Harold Hylede- tand at I^re in Seland, have an altar-ftone under which he lies, and on which the people annually

performed

(/) Viaggiana, pag. 113.

(m) iEcatis progrenu, plus operx in magnatum tamuUs poiitum Tidetur. Supra.

(/i) Scurlsfon.

(o) De quo (Wodeno) omnium fere barbarorum gentium regium genus lineam trahit* GuiL Malmefl).

t^RISH ANTIQJ7ITIBS. 99

perfbmied (j) facrifices. Wonnius, Mr. Peonant, the Gompte de Cay lus, and every olhc r intelligent writer^ allow thefe ftone circles to be fepulcbral, andthatthey certainly are fepulchral appearsfrom a hmnan body being found under each upright ftoDe, in fonoe circles lately opened in Connaught« So that after all that has been written on Stone- hcDge, it may be the fepolture of Hengift and the Anglo-Saxon chiefii ; the firft being buried under thealtar^ and. t^ otiinrs under the trilithons*

Thefe ftcMie circles thus dedicated to rdis^oua ufes, their application to other folenm piuipofes eafily followed. Here kings were ele6tod and in- augurated, and courts of jufiioe and fingle xsombals ireiebekL Wehadfi>rnjerlyinodr(7)chiuches, playS) fieafts, courtSi-leet and muftecs^ and at prefeat our kingpi are anointed there, all -fcmains of 2DQent ulages. M thofe pyramidal, and per« peodicotar pillars (r) had ejutaphs ezpreffing the Bame and rank of the deceafed, fo GhriftiacDS:imi* tated fuch Samples by their grav«4iones and tombs. Womuus, the two Mi^ni, iSxxo Oram-

loaticus, and the oorthem writers, oonifamtly and

U 2 invariably

.(^) Qaotannis fiicrsi pcragantar. Worm, ia the Lara- nomi, the Romans prefcrved the aflies aad pi^ret of their >&ceftors with their houfliold Gods. Sed quama prima oHgine intra fuas qaifqoe «des defofla cadavera haberent, ^ Lares in fmgulis sedibus colendi reiigio perfyafity in ''arario, in quo praeter deorum penatium, etistm infignium viroram quas venerarentur, emAas imagines habebant* Alex. ab. Alexand. lib. 6.

(f) Canons of the church of Ireland, A. D. 1634. Canon 92.

('') Grandes cippos patriis literis notatos impofuerunt^ Worm.

lea ON THE STUDY OF

MONASTICON HIBERNICUM.

In a country where the clergy were as nume- rous as (:) all the other clafies of men, and thofe for the mod part Monks, an account of their or- ders and their various eftabliihments includes nc fmall Ihare of the general hiftory of the nation. About the middle of the fourth century Mona< chifm was introduced into Italy, and quickly fpread through the Weft. The (/) biographers ol St. Patrick tell us, he learned monaftic difdpluK under Martin bifhop of Tours; a prelate who had no lels.than two (u) thoufand Monks in a mo- naftery contiguous to his cathedral. Our apoftU lludied this fafhionable profeffion for many yean among the Italian afcetics, and his predilection b\ it was cpnfpicuous when he formed the Inft church. In fuccceding centuries thefe foundatiocu multiplied amazingly, fo that at the reformation there were five hundred and twenty-nine monaf teries and nunneries in this kingdom.

The Monafticon Hibernicum, the writings o Ware, AUemande and others, are too fhort U give fatisfadion on fo ample a fubjedl. Dofio; King archbiftiop of Dublin, who knew the valu< of it, did not think it beneath his attention t< make large (w) compilations from original record

fo

•

(j) Nicolfon's Irifli Hlft. Library, prcf. pag. 14.

(t) Apud Ulber. Primord. cap. 16.

(u) Sulp. Sever. Epift ad BafTuI.

(at;) They are now in ihc library of the Diiblia Society.

IRI'SH ANTIQJJITlEfi. 103

forks further illuftration ; and Sir James Ware has left a large volume of inquifitions» reciting the grants and poifellions of the principal abbies, taken from the public ofikres. The coUediing and (%ftmg thefe documents, and procuring other materials have employed for fome years, the lei- fore hours of a reverend clergyman and an aflb- date. An extraordinary fkill in our antiquities, and an eminence in every branch of polite learn* ing, recommended him to the patronage of his late excellent diocefan, doflor Pococke, fnccef- fivdy biihop of Oflbry and of Meath : than whom a better judge of merit, or a more generous pro^ tcfior of it, our hierarchy has not produced.

Sir William Dugdale and Mr. Dodfworth ac-

qmied immortal fame by the Engliih Monafticon.

The civil, military and ecclefiafUcal hiftory of

Britab, has derived as bifhop Nicolfon remarks,

^ advantages from it : fcarce a family of any

antiquity or property but find themfelves intereft-

^ in it. The fame would be the cafe in Ireland,

^d public fpirit encourage a iimilar undertaking.

Both the Britiih and Irifh libraries fupply abun-

^t matter. All that can be offered, under the

prcfent circumflances, are fhort annals and ex-

^Qs from charters, which will form part of this

CoUeftanea.

I^ I753> dodlor Thomas Burke, late titular bi- ihop of Offory, was appointed hiftoriographer of die Dominican order in Ireland, and in 1762, he ptoduced his

HIBERNIA

S04 ON TBS STUPT OF

HIBERNIA DOMINICANA:

Sivc Hifioria Prmindac Hibenu^ OnUois Pns^ dkatonuB, €X aotiqois inaaiilcdpdsy piobads auc* toribm, Ikerift ongiiialibas ponqimn aatefa^c im» prtfiis, iaftnimmris anihenocis et aiichivis^ all* ifquc 'm\iaa^ fidei monninfntiK deprompta. la q^ ncdum omniay qoae ad memoiatam attincnt piDvinriam, et Camobia ejus, lam inna qoamext tra rcgnmn Hibernia: conflimu (interjefiis fiogik kmim fundaioniiQ gmfalogitf) atqiie adamiiaiip^ iiqs» feu digyiitatc d^copali, fot muoeie provjiw dali, (eu libronun y]»lgatione» feu maitynp^ pil> licave virtiuis opiokvic daros, fitcdodc dtftiQi^

<pie exbibemor. Sed edam pLura regnlaio gcaoi^ ratim fiunptof , derumque fayi3larem> oecow ft i€B civiles Hibeniis. ataue ctisuax MaisLOje Brkan- piae fpe^Uotia, fpargm appofiteque, a4Je£U& ii>- fuper nods opponaw, iukvimxu, et m perfpiaiP Oidioe collocaxitur.

After fo large a titlci^page it is oply nece&ry tQ obfervet tbat it bears marks of ccnaiiderablQ Wrn- U^ and iaduftry. It wa^ printed in KiLken^y mip der bis own infpe^n, though the title mentiom Clologn in Germany; in 1772, he publiihed an appendix to this work. The particular J^oticc t^ jken of this book is, to recominend it; as a pattern for other rdigious comnumities to imitate ; ^Ad as one eafy and obvious mean towards perfe£UagoiiV Monafticon. Were the original charters and 4fi- fcriptions of the abbies, (fome of them beautiful and weU preferved) given, his work had been

-complete.

IRia ANTIQJflTIZS. 105

conipkte. As the firft edition has been long fincc foUoS, and the book faecome very fcarce, aa abfidgcoieat of it, freed from extraneous matter, will form the fubjeA pf fome futiure niunber.

ARCHITECTURE,

The buildings of the antient Iiiih were ib^ jhmf M ibok of the uncivilized peoj^e ; cpnfifting of matenak the flighted and tbe^ai^ft tp be piXKW^ Sir Jimes Ware and his followers have Miy^i^^ tbii evidence, and there dropt the fubjeA, leavui^ animpieifion upon the re^der^ a:^ if there were po other fini^^ures in Ireland bujt ftraw4)uilt qpttagel^ This among other thiogs has countenanced thitt ideaof barbarifin^fo conftantly inculcated in books of geograj^y and travels ; and is, in reality, af glariog a faUhood as any to be found in fuch inju- dicious, fUmfy and wretched produdiions. It b cerubly not amifs to recur to the earUeft uliigesof iiadons, but why flop there ? Is it not as plealing ^ mvefUgation, to trace the progrefs of knowr l^e from its fimpleft exertions to its moft refin- ^ energies ? The different ftages of arcbite^uie nuirk, in dedfive charaders, the ftate of civility : ^ is there one topic, in the antiquities of a king- ^, productive of more elegant entertainment, or VQott uiefiil information.

la the enfuing diScrtation, the ftyle of oiu* an- ient habitations, and thedawnings of its improve- ment are given from apparently indifputable au- thority;

io6 ONTHESTUDTOF

thority. As it wa$ iatended there to proceed bi^ ^ to a certain period, the further profecution of th^^ fubjeft is rcferved to a trad — On the ctvUy ml^ tary and ecclefiaJHcal archiuSure of the IrjflDyjmr^ the tarliefi ages — ^which will foon appear in a fubfe- — quent number of the CoUedanea, illuftratcd witht- drawings ; in that traft will be an account of our buildings without cement ; our monaftic cells and cryptical receffes ; our ftone-roofed churches ; as Cormac's at Cafhel, St. Doulagh'fl, Glendalocb, Saul abbey and Portaferry. Specimens of every Variety of the Gothic ftyle will be exhibited, and many particulars relative to our civil and military ftruSures coUedled. The writer alfo introduces, as collateral to the foregoing, the hiftory of our Stone-Croffes, and an inquiry, whether our antient churches rcfembled the Greek temples. A para- dox is alfo folved, of a nation warmly cultivating the arts and fciences, and yet neglefting architec- ture : which was the cafe of Ireland in certain ages. This will be followed by the — hijiory and antiqid- iks ^ Glevdalocby and its Seven Churches^ in ike county of Wicklow ;— wherein many of the fafts and observations, in the preceding treatifcs, will be further elucidated and confirmed.

The knowledge of perfpe<5iive and a tafte for

drawing, fo generally diflbfed at prefent, have

refcued many unheeded and mouldered objcdls

from total decay, and enriched every colle^ion

•with beautiful fpecimens of our antient buildings.

ECCLE-

IRISH ANTIQ.UITIES. 107

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

AconDededbiftoryoftheintTodudioaand pro- pagation of Chiiftianity in this ifland> is a defktera- tum long complained of, yet no attempt has been made to fupply the defeat. The fizteentfa and fe- ventcenthchaptersofarchbifhopUfher^santiquities of the Britifli churches, ^nd his difcourfe on tdie re- ligion of the antient Irifli, are the only things to be found in our ecclefiaftical T>ibliotheque deferv- iog notice on this head. Of the firft our prelate ipeaks with truth and modefty, and candidly (x) CQofiefles his inferting much frivolous, doubtful and fome falfe matter ; Ihowing at the fame dme» that fome advant^es may arife from each of thefe. His difcourfe is extremely valuable, but far from being complete. The abbe Ma Geoghagan's pom- poos performance is a tiflue of incredible &£tion^ and l^endary tales, with fcarce an inftance of judgment or fel6£tiao.

It is peculiarly imfortunate for Ireland^ diat ihe 'who illuminated the weftem hemifphere with die radiance of divine truths, and is therefore repte- fented by Aldhelm, in the year 690, astiCyJpsb-

radile

(jr) la noftra autcm hacc ex omni fcriptorum cenere pro- nifcue congcfla farragine, Sec. Prxfac. ad Anciquit. Britan. Ecdcs.

(jj Quamvit enim prxdi5um Hibernix rus, difcentium opulans vernanTque (uc ita dixerim) pafcuofa numeroiitatc Icdorum, quemadmodam poll cardiacs aftriferis mtcanttum OTQentTir Ttbraminibus fiderum. Aldhel. epift. ad Eahfrid. ipad Ulher. Syllog. pag. 40.

1^ DW THE JTl?DT OF

radife or new la&eal circle brightened by innume TzHe &%fs pf l^imi^g, Ibould wiut a aadve writei to record her celebrity in tbofe times, and do jaf j^f^to tjb^ pt^rityof ^r feith. Itkavorkof la ^tmfi fapt §M of cqnp&ty and inftrDAion : fiic) 9 work yf§ ^f§ hi^ppy in fumoiuicing to he al xe^dy iofifyieA^y M afiCoqiate, iioder the titk o&r 4nfii4it» of mhjukjikal hijlory : or a naew tftb 499rin§^4i^line^thi church of Ireland jfrmu ih jffih 4^ the tbiri§^h century.

V^U ^p compofitioD can cofivenientiy appeai |(^ ^e Ccdlc^aiUBa* the foUo^raig eitra& vrali pw lame idea of he /sxeciitioii.

^ Joceline noibmifi us» tl^ St. Patrick ordaineci t}u»e Im^e^ wH Uty Ufl^opf for the InflLchundi Jyljemiuff fay3, three Imndred and iixty^five. Tfai iij^pc^ntment of £iich a number bath hitherto beei K^eemed ^bfolotely falfe, or inexplicalple ; btscaufi writers toofvequenfiy take their ixitions from wfaf 1 ^thfy fee, witbom being at die pains to ezamiac antient ufages. Thus bifhop lioyd (a) imagiMi diatbdidesthirtybiihopswhichSt. Patrick confecr^ ti3d £3f the principal fees, he made as many fofln gans as dierc were rural deaneries, fuppofingeafi} io contain ei^t or nipe parifh churches. But ther< is no more connexion between rural deaneries anc our antient fees, than there is between the (a) day of the year, and St. Patrick's biftiops. (*) (XHal

Iprai

(z) On church goyernmeot, pa?. 02.

yf) h feems, fays the writer iajt c^tec}, 1;hat w.hep the ap thoFs of tho£b times were fet upop the pin of mu]tiplyixi| they ufed to fay, that things were as ma^iy as the day^ c the year. Hence Nennius makes them 365.

iff) IntroduAion to the hiftory of Ireland.

IRISH ANTiq^UtTlES. i<^

kmu tbinksour apofile tiiight ordain ninety-fi:r bi- fk>p9, and as many of ihefe might have died dur- io; his Jong life, and fo many fucoeeded in their reom, as completed the number abov^ «

All this is mere conje£lure : ike folutlon c^ thd

difficulty arifes from tendering the ftate and prac-

&ces of the early chriftian church. From Ckmeiia

Romanus we learn, that in his tiiM^ th« ep^CifpA

Oder was very numerous; ^very {§) dty^ villigt^

and region had a bifhop; mady dities httd tw6 otid

ibiiie mcnre. Thus, (d) Alexsmdet ftncl Niliidfltii

utiebifhcpetrf^J^^rkfalem together; Pkuliilud^nd

AGietas of Antioch ; Theodofliis khd Ag&petU^ df

Sjuada, and Yaleritis aiid Augt^ine of Hipp6^

TkecuAom for a city tx^ have but one bUhopi wai

firftbtfganinAlexandrif^ as Epiph^ius remarks.

So arach h^d the chdrepiibopi bt village^biihopft

itaeaf<id^ that i\ bec^m^ nMeflary to reftrain theii:

mshti, whfoh was dohe in the Lkbdieean ctnuk-

cil, A. D. 367, iind before in the Ahtiodieaii.

la the fourth Ijcfatuty, St Bufil writes to Att- ]Ailbchiui^ taOiop of Icotiium, that he did not ap- pmve of bis multiplying btfhops, &s thereby thi dignity went into contempt : it Wbilld be better, ^ he4 to dhoofe foihe ikikn Worthy a bifhoprick, whdiMghtlake prtefts to his afiiftancfe, thim divide

a fmall

« {^) lUr« x^i'^f xau'xuXiiiu Epift. ad Corinth. Salmas. de Priffiatu. Burchard. lib. i. cap. 12$. Oodor Hammond f*yHx«t*i firnifiej «.proThice. Vindication of epifcopacy* P^- 134.4 f^ fVoi^ that infers they were not to nuBieroal : ('vtitwill be feen from thtr nature of the et>ifi:Opal office* ttd tbe cnftom bf xht eriifntiil chtirch, that Iii& eondufioa

(^Lufeb. Socrat. and PoBdOfai int. An^ul caf). t.

si^ ON THE. STUDY OF

a fhiall diftri& ihto many fees. Thefe orientat pra&ice3 were clofely followed by Str Patrick. It 18 not infifted on» ihat the number he is faid to have ordained^ is accurate> but great as it is, it will not appear incredible.

By the fifty-eighth Neo-Csefarean canon, made in A. D. 315, the adminiftration of thefacraments were in a great me^ure confined to the Infhopi and chorepifcopi ; and in (e) Tertullian it is ex^ preisly declared^.that prefbyters had nat the liberty: of baptizing without the bUhop's permiiQion ; or of preaching in fome churches, as Socrates afiiireft us. Leo> in his niuety-fecond epiftle, defires Mazimns, bifhop of Antioch, to hinder monks and laymen from preaching which was folely the biihop^s of- fice. In England, by the third of archbifhop Cuthbert's canons in A. D. 747^ the bifhopb en^^ joined to vifit his parifh once a year, and preadi the word of God which it rarely hears. : Thefe laft words refer, as wdl to the paucity of dergymra then, as to the reftridion of this duty to the. bi- fhop. Similar canons may be found in the legap tine council of Cealchythe, in A. D. 785, and in Odo's, in A. D. 943.

The great offices of religion being thus confined to the bifliops and their fufiragans, and that by the difcipline of the eaftem and weftem churches we cannot be furprifed at their increafe, or at th«

numbe

(f) Dandi baptifmutn jas habet fumoins facerdos, qui t epifcopus, dein prefbyteri & diaconi, non tamen tint epi} copt authoritate. De baptifmoy cap. 1 7. And much earlir Ignatius : Mnht x^V^ tns»9ini ri 9r(«K(iT«. Epift. ad Smyn' See the feventh conftituticn of the council of Se? illc, A. 1 619, which is full co thefe points. -

IRISH ANTIQJJITIES. iii

number ordained by St. Patrick : the (f) eftablifh- meDtandextenfiocL of Chriflianity depended on it. Another inftanceof the orientalifm of our church, and corroborative of what b advanced, is the pow- er ezercifed by our prelates and primates in or- daining bifhops and*ere£ling fees. By the canons of the African code, colleAed in A. D. 419, me- tropolitans and primates were invefted with fuch power. St. Bernard, in his life of Malachy arch- biihop of Armagh, complains : '^ tliat bifhops mul- tiplied according to the will of the metropolitan ; that one fee was not contented with one bilhop, batalmoft every church had a feparate one." Lan- franc to the fame purpofe (g) fays, ^* in villages and towns were many bifhops , and as {h) Anfelm adds, made without a title, or aflignmentof any particular place.'' Here was another fruitful fource for mul- dfdyiog the epifcopal order. Ordination without a tide was common in the eaft, and was prohibited hy the Antiochean, Ancyran and other canons."

MISCELLANEOUS.

It would much exceed the limits of this eflay, to emunerate the various heads of Irifh antiquities, which will receive illuftration in the courfe of this woric. Coins, infcriptions and fepulchral monu- ments

//JThe learned Mr. Johnfon (Clerffyman*s Vade Mecum, 'ol. 2. pag. 1 88) is very much puzzled at an expreflion of Attrelius, bi(hop of Carthage, who fays : — We have fre- ^^Kntlj and almofl every Sunday, bifliops to be ordained— bat the explanation is now given.

(i) £pift. ad Tirdelvac. Apud Ufher, Syilog.

(^) Epift. ad Muriardach. Ufhcr, fupra.

tit ON THE STUDY OF

mrau will not be for gdtien ; nor the learnings cuftoms and maxmnera of the natives in eveiy agei As a fpecimen of the latter, the writer begs leave to offer the following mifcellaneous obfervatkvB.

GaxiK Languags. Virgil, our oountrjrmanj was one of eight (i) Irifli bifhopsy who undertook^ agreeable to the devotion of tbe times^ a jouraoy to the HoIy4and. In France he was appointed to a fi9e> by pope Stephen and king Pepin« Thi latter detain^ him in his family for two ye%n^ to profit by his uncommon erudition andpkqr* He was afi^rwaifds promoted to the 1»£hoptick d Saltzburgt by Otilo, duke of Bavaria, wherein he remained to the time of his death in the year 785« We are told he con<3ealed his rank for fome tiffi^ and had with him a biihop^ named Dobdan^ i Oteek, who followed him from Ireland. lihonld wonder, fays Uihet, at a Grecian's going frcMl Irelfti^, did I not know, that at Trun i& Meath k a church called the Greek church, at thift day: A.D. 163Z. The learned primate has thrown nc further light on thi& matter^ btit it Will not appeal extraordinary when we confider, that (k) Johannes Scbtus £rig^a, foime years aftef^ gave thecleaiefl detnonftration of his proficiency in thid language by his tranllation of Dionyfius Areopagita, whid) he dedicated to Charles th^ Bald, king of France.

If it be afked, where Johannes acquired this knowledge, the letter of Anaftafius concerning thifl

tranflation

(/)tJ{h€r. Syllog. pug. 131.

(i) PoiTemus etiam his iddcre virum longe doffiffimttoi Johannem Erigenam Scotum, id eft, HibemigenaiB c I^cqcU ortum hoc cnlm nomine caUbris oitm Hibemia. Bolton Hift. Greci ling, pig.jjj.

IRISH ANTIQJJITIES. 113

traDjQation fupplies the moft unequivocal proof that it was in Ireland. It is wonderful, fays this (/) author, with all the affeAation of Italian politenefs, how a barbarian placed in the end of the world, and removed from the converfation of the learned and the knowledge of the Greek tongue, could under- itand fuch things, or tranflate them into another language ! Thefe difrefpedlful expreflions fliowhim ignorant of the ftate of letters be}'ond the boimds of Rome, and betray an illiberal mind, imworthy the Gbrarian of the Roman church. He complains that be adhered too clofe to the original, and thereby rendered a difficult fubje£l more unintelligible. To oiir Johannes we are aJfo indebted for a valuable tradof about fifty pages in o£lavo— De differentiis et fodetatibus Graeci Latinique verbi— extrafled from a larger workof (w) Macrobius, and collected for his own private inflrudlion. He treats largely of the Greek tenfes of defeidve verbs and the forms of words, and his grammatical fkill in both tongues is very confpicuous. He (») omits many things advanced by Macrobius without fufficient autho- rity, and inferts others upon better.

This inflance of Johannes will juftifyns in laying, that had time and war fpai^ our lettered monuments, this ifle alone would have redeemed the reputation of thofe ages now denominated dark

Vol. n. I and

10 Ufher, fupra, pag. 65.

(•) Explicit defloriacio de iibro Ambrofii Macrobii Theo* ^i. quam Johannes carpferat ad difcendas Grzcorum ^bonim regulas. Macrob. Oper. pag. 579. Edit. Pontani, 15Q7. Ufh. Syllog. pag. 135.

(«) Malta noB pnetcnaiGfle perfpexerit. — Qpatdam tamen inferntaras, quxAobie ex proportiona alioruoi verifknilia fieri Yifafant. pag. 58a.

114 ON THE STUDY OF

and obfcure. Inflead of the paltry and difgraceful fpecimens of our literature given by Colgan and others, we fhould then behold works of real genius and confummate learning, of profound philofophy and correal criticilm. j

B&OGU£S WORN WITH MAY IN THEM. Ai

this day the prattice is univerfal for the natives to have their brogues fluffed with hay or ftraw with- out being able to aflign any reafcn for the ci^Jlom : the following is offered both as curious and fads- fadory. Linnaeus tells (o) us, the Laplanders through their long and cold winters keep abroad with their herds of Rhen-deer ; that they never ex- perience kibes, or other eSeSts of intenfe frofts, hj means of this precaution. In fummer they cut and dry the flender-eared, broad-leaved cyperus graft, ^ carex veficaria ; this they comb and rub in their -] hands, and then places it in their fhoes fo as to cover their feet and legs ; their fhoes are made oi the Ikin of the Rhen-deer, the hairy part turned iiv- ward ; they have no ftockings, their breeches ar^ of the fame fkin and come dowTX to their ankle^^ This grafs keeps off the cold in winter, and in fun^^ mer prevents the effefls of perfpiration.

In like manner, an {p) eye-witnefe infonns u^^ that the Englifh, when they fettled in America^ ufed the baftard calamus aromaticus to keep thei^ feet warm. The antient brogue was made of raw^ or half-tanned leather, of one intire piece, and ga- thered round the foot by a thong ; fuch an one was found in tlie year 1770, at Aghaboe, in a bog

feven

(0) Apud Scillingfieet's trads, pag. 138. (f) Joffelyn'i New Englsmd rarities, pag. 53.

IRISH ANTIQJJITIES. 115

feet below the furface. The fole f)eing thin, He ftufimg prevented injury from ilones or flumps i trees, beiides keeping the foot warm ; but that i Chould be ufed now, when the foles of brogues aie ftroi^ and impervious to wet, can only be ac- counted for, from that extraordinary retention of old cuftoms for which mankind are r.emarkable.

Cakaghts. The manners and cuftoms of rude moDS are nearly the fame in all parts and all ages of the world. The Scythians, according to (q) Herodotus and Juftin, had neither houfes nor fixed Imkaients ; tfa^y wandered through the country lith their flocks and herds. Their wives, their duklren and little furniture they carried in carts or ws^onsy covered with fkins. They were ffaran- gento agriculture. Thefe manners were realized in oor Cceaghts, and that fo late as in the laft centu- ry, as appears by this entry in counfellor Harris's coUe^ns, now inthelibrary of the DublinSociety. " Orders by the general aflembly of confederate Catix)lics, at Kilkeimy, the isth of Nov. 1647* Whereas feveral perfons of the province of tJliler, and other parts of this kingdom, with their <^ttle and families, go in gp:eat multitudes through feveral parts of the feveral provinces of this kiE^. dom ; being, as they alledge, neceflitated for the Wcty of their lives and fortimes, to leave their former dwellings and habitations, and where, by Air daily ranging, they have very much prejudiced ffwal counties, in defiroying the grafs, corn and other goods of the inhabitants there, which hath occafioned, that feveral cotmties and places are

I 2 quite

(f) Lib. 4. Jnlltfi, lib. a. cap. a.

ii6 ON rat STtJDt, Ac.

quice deferted and wafted, and tke faid tS[eyriaght avoid the contribution which (alls dme uponthes It i^ therefore for the futui^ redrefs of fuch mi duefe thought fit, that the lord general of Ulfte calling to hi^ aiMance fuch othfer perfons of tfa faid province as fhall be fit, ihiiU inquire and fin onti» and return tp the fupreme council now to fe eftabliihed, the head Keyriaghts of the £^ pn vince of Ulfter, within the feverrai province ^ Leinfter, Munfter, and Gonnaught, andwhat nufl bers of cattle each of them hatii. Vp»a ittar whereof, and exami^tion, by the tounc3> of ^ lands wafted in the feveral count^ which are fi for county charges only, or whicti are waitexS «tt yield no county charges, to affign unto the G6 Keyriaghts, or unto feveral of theih tc^jether, i much of the wafte lands in the feveral provinci for their habitations, and their paymg couni charges for the fame, as others of the faid coimti^ will do, where they aire to refide, till they may r mm to their former habitations, and not to annc their neighbours, or any of the quarters of tl xxmfederate Gatholics^ at their peril. Printed at Kilkenny, 1647." The encampments of thefe Crel^hts are ftill ^ be feen in many parts of the kingdom ; one « them is on KnbckacoUa Hill, near Caftleto^n:^, i the (^en*s coi^ty^ Ittofierous burwws, or holi where 'they placed th«Sr pots, appear, as is prai tifed at fairs. In thek jo\imies they married wit the refident natives, and ive may trace the n mains of them iti that county, in the names c Mac Dowel, Mac Donnel, Sinclair, and the like.

DISSERTATIO N

O N TH X

ROUND TOWERS

IN

■

IRELAND,

By EDWARD LEDWICH, L. L. B.

ViCAK. of AcHABOE in the Quebn's Covktt.

\

* y

DISSERTATION

ON T H X

ROUND TOWERS

I N

IRELAND.

Among the many curiofities of nature and art, with which this kingdom remarkably abouQds, not one of them merits a more par- ticular attention than the numerous, flender round towers every where found; and which from the obfcurity of their origin, and the uncertain- ty of their ufe, have opened to men of leifure ^ emdition, a fpadous field for hypothecs and coujefture.

It is worth remarking, that men blindly devot- ^ to fyftems too often deal unfairly by the au- thors to whom they are moft indebted ; they feleft fcch parts as make for their argument; in thefe no ^nororimperfedlion appears; but thofe that con- travene their favourite notions are reprobated as ^idcferving the leaft regard ; not conlidering, that ^ invalidating the credibility and authority of a

writer

120 A DISSERTATIONoM tmb

writer in any infiance, they mnil defeat the p pofe for which they adduce him. Giraldus Ca brexifis h^tb FemarkaUy experienced this tre ment ; in fome cafes his teftimony is alledged decifive, when in others he is faid to be fabulc and prejudiced ; yet if we allow for the ^gc which he lived ; the prevalence of romantic &i on ; the low ftate of learning and criticifm, wit! tinfliare of perfonal vanity ; we ftiall fee h throughout his works, a man of excellent talen and well verfed in the various departments of i ence then known and cultivated. His coming this kingdom at different times, with his contii ance m it, miift give a degree of credit to his ; lations not lightly to be regarded, nor rejedl without fafEcient reafon.

" Th$ Irifti nation^ f^ys (a) this Writer, is inh- pitable> living on the produce of their cattle, a leading a life but little Superior to them; nor ba they emerged from the paftoral ftate. As the p grefs of human fociety i$ to advance from m^oc to open fields, and from the latter to towns, ti nation defp^ng agriculture, inattentive to ci wealth and regardlefe of law, fpeud their lives woods and paftures.^— 'Thefe remarks are juft, a evince the fijae philofopbical turn of the auth( they are exa6tly the fame ideas which make a a ipijcuous figure in one of the fketches of (i) k Kaims. The Iriih had quitted the hunter, aiid j

vane

(a) Eft auteni gens haec, gens inhofpica ; gens ex be fohi'rn, &c. Topog. Hibern, {b) SkttxAri, book 1.

ROUND TOWERS m IRELAND. lai

rai^ to the ifaepherd ftate, the fecond fiage in tbe civilization of mankind ; but dieir manners were little akered ; their food, their domefticatioQ aDd every other drcumftance ihowed, that the li- berty, the feixcity and untamed nature of tenants of the foreft, were far from beii^ reclaimed, and iliil farther from fubmitting to the falutary ref- tiaints of legal inftitutions. Their but little {c) af- kSing civil wealth, (which includes the orna- mental arts,) refulted from their want of foreign trade, home manufadures and great towns.

Cambrenfis proceeds : — ^^'The (d) different kinds of metal with which the deeper veins abound, through au idle difpoiition are neidier dug for any ufe, or turned to any account. For gold, which they covet to have in abundance, is imported among them by Oftmen merchants. They have no manufactures of linen, woollen, or othf r kinds. Sunk in indolence and doth, they efleem it their higheit blifs not to labour, and their greateft riches to enjoy their liberty." — ^This and the former cita- tion accord; there are an imion and harmony of parts, which (how the pencil of the painter was guided by truth in the great outline. It is fcarcely poflible to conceive, as it would be very prepot terous to affert, that the writer rather indulged a licentious fancy on this occafion, than reprefented living manners ; the moft perverfe nationality muft Mufh to affert it.

The

ic) Civiles gazas param affledans. Cambrens. fupra.

(^) Metallonim quoque diverforum genera quibus venae ><^ataHttnt inceriores, ejuidem ociofitatis vitio, nee ad ufum prodeunt, nee proficianc Cambrens. Aipra.

izi A DISSERTATION ojr tbe

The gold imported by the OftmeHsWas ufed bj the natives for perfonal ornaments. Hiey behek thefe ftrangers decorated with this ihining metal worked into (e) bracelets, rings and other garni tares, as badges of nobility, and rewards of va lour, and they were eager to adorn themfdves ii .like manner. Coined money was not (f) com mon in the tenth century among the northern na tions, and out of the Engliih pale the Iriih ban very little.

Even fo late as the year 133 1, it appears b (g) lecord, that fines or law-mulds were ordered to be paid no longer in cattle but in money ; an« in 1399, ^^^ prince of Leinller's horfe was valuei at four hundred cows. The gentleman who ai tended king Richard II. in his expedition hither a this time, adds : — {h) For in that country they bai ter by exchange, and one commodity for anothei and not for ready money. — If then permutatio was in ufe in 1399, ^^^ I^i^ were furely not mor improved in 11 85, when Cambrenfis was hei and examined the country ! So that we may giv full credit to his narration in this refped, notwit): Handing what our antiquarians tell us of the va treafurcs of our monarchs.

Cambrenf]

(i) Sax. Grammat. pafl". Bartholin, dc Armillis vctcruc Some-'of thefe Armillx, and of different fizes, were four a few years ago in a Daniih rath at. Cartown, Queer County, by Daniel Kane, a labouring nran.

(fj Ilia vero tcmpeftate (eleventh century) nulla crat terra moneta, fed rebus res conamutantes veLullilfiaio mor merecebantur. Krantz. Wandai. lib. 3. p. 70.

{g) Quod de cetero, fines dc vaccis pro redcmptione nc c^piantur fed denarii. Prynneou the 4th Inftic. 5 £dw. I]

(A) A pud Harris's Hibcrn. pag- 53.

ROUND TOWERS in IRELAND. 123

Gambrenfis having ffaown, that the dawnings of

commerce among the Irifh origmated from their

intercoarfe with the Oilmen, intimates alfo other

arts, with which thofe foreigners brought them ac-

quamted, and particularly that moft ufeful one of

mafonry. ThjC Celtic nations did not know (;") the

ufeof lime or cements, and the reafon is obvious;

they were in a rude and difperfed ftate, without

fixed habitations or domeflic improvements ; and

timber abounded for every purpofe. In America

JQonft of the public and private buildings are c^

wood, as well as the fmall fortrefles in remote

parts. It was the fcarcity of timber, and the daa-

|er of wooden houfes from fire in populous towns,

that made mankind turn their attention to more

durable materials, and borrow the arts of more o-

^'^ized nations.

This neceffity had not operated in favour of Irifli

^i'chitefture at this time, nor for feme ages after

the arrival of the Oilmen ; who at firft introduced

^bemfelves here as traders, if we believe Cambren-

^^^y but more probably as (k) pirates, infefting and

^'^ding alternately along the coaft of the kingdom,

^ <^rcumftance5 offered. Th'is was in the year

'^PS • Succefs allured others to fimilar enterprizes.

-^^fiing the country open and fertile, and the in-

^*^itants in no fituation to pppofe large bodies,

J^^y attempted the conqueft of them. England,

^^^tland and (/) France had felt the force of the

northern

v^ Ne cxmentomm quidem apud illos ufus. Tacit Germ* ^. 16. v^) Warxi Antiq. pag. ui. ^ v^ On commerce a parler des Normands, dcs AngIois» f ^^^ Danois, &c. Charlemagne pr6vit ovcc douleur Ics^ra^ ^^es. Henault Hift. de France, pag. 69. A. 807.

124 A DIS&SRTATION on thb

northern prowefe. The fhort (m) lances of the IriOi, their {&ag% and darts were ill-matched with the Danifh habergeons, their ihields, large axes axid long fwords ; no wonder if they fuccumbed to fuch enemies. To this fuperiority of their being clad in mail, our (n) hiftorians afcribe the vi&ories of the Saxons over the Scots and Pi^. Thefe incidental fads are additionally illuftrative of our incivility in thole ages.

Turgefius, the Danifh chief, having in the year 840, fubdued this illand, examined it round, and at proper ftations erefled (0) caftles and fortreflcs throughout it* Hence it is, fays (p) Cambrenfis, that we fee at this day an infinite number of in- trenchments, very high, round, and manv of them triple; alfo walled caftles now (A. D. J185.) in good prefervation, though empty and deferted; the remains and traces of former times. For the Irifli, continues he, build no caftles ; woods fcrve

them

{wf)Tribus tamen ntuntur (Hibcrnii) armorum generibus; lancets non longis k jaculis bta>s. Lapidet quo(^ie pugillares, cam alia defecertnt, hodibus in confitdu daranofiflimis prx .;^liagcnte, promptius &: expeditius ad manum habenc. Viri betlicoA, Dan/C9 vioret undique ferro vcftiti, alii loricis longiB, alii laminis ferreis arte confutis^ clypejs quoque rotundis, et rubrLs circulariter ferro municis. Cambrens. fup. cap. 21.

(fi) Cumque hoftes pilis et lanceis pugnarent, Anglofaxone^ ,Tero fecuribus gladiifque longis rigidiffiove^ecertarent, nc- quiverunt Pidlae & Scoti poodus tantiim perferre, fed fuga faliiti fux confuluerant. Langhorn. Chron. pag. 7.

(0) Totam undique terram, locis idoneis incaftellavit. Cinobrens. fup.

(/>) Unde fofTata infinita, alta nimis, rotunda quoque ac pleraque triplicia. Cafteila etiam murata, et adhuc integra, vacua, tamen et deferta, ex reliquiis illis et antiquitatis teftijiis, muica rcperics. Cambrens. fup. r^"^ ->•».

ROUND TOWERS in IRELAND. 12;

them for fortifications, and the mora&s for en^ ttendnents. Thefe accounts, our author tells us, kkamed from Iriih writers^ and he himfelf, vrfao was well acquainted with the Danifli fetdemeats at DubiiD, Waterford and Limerick, and with the Danffli clergy, many of whom poffefled high dig- nities in the church, fuggefted nothing to contra^ diA them. Our own writers complain >— (y) That Wngenfraiichifed from the tyranny of Turgefios, ^ refigned ouifelves to eafe and umnafculine laziiiefe ; negle£led navigation and fleets, whidi ti^e >ceuld fecure us from frefh attacks ; and ^veie to far blinded as to flight all the Danifh for- ^CBfdmis, making none m their ftead, not evtn ^ Ae (eft-ports.«»—

Gambfenfis, in the preceding extract, accurately ^fiftinguiflies the different forts of Daniftx fortrefftt; fetBe were of clay, others of lime and ftone. The foflatam was generally a conical rifing ground ; ^te firft intrenchment was made round the vertex, ^iid Ae earth thrown down the bill ; this fwelled 'ts ^rcumference and enlarged its bafe. By work- '^tig thus, the ditches were eafier made, and the vaElla or ramparts became higher and more pre- cipitous. The caftella murata being of Ihne and ftone are mentioned in contradiftindUon to the foffata ; and Aom the former being called (r) nejls

by

U) Wjilfli's Profpca, pag. 51.

- \) Cumquc rcfponfum, nidos eomm ubique dcftniendos,

.' Jafti forte nidificaflVtJt, dc Caftellis Norwagienfium hoc

"P^^prctants. Cambrens. fup. cap. 42. Elfewherc — Civitates

-?"^tis & miiris opttme cinxerant : flill preferving the dif-

*'*^icn. Thefe nefts were the circular towers hereafter

^^iccd by 'MacpherTon.

126 A DISSERTATION ON the

•

by the natives, they mail have been high circular buildings, if any connexion was meant between the two ideas. In the erection of tl^efe forts, Tur- gefius confulted prudence and the paucity of his troops, as by them he could extend his commimi- cations to a great diftance, and yet be fure againft the confequences of infurre6lion8.

The evidence now produced of the uncivilized ftate of the Irilh, of their ignorance of the me- chanic arts and the iatrodudion of mafonry by the Oilmen, mufl be allowed to have great force ; but it will receive an higher degree of certainty, if it fhould be confirmed, as to the laft particular^ by both Irifh and Englifh writers. Mr. O'Qjunor (s) in- forms us ; " that the buildings of the ancient Scots were for ufe folely and not for oftentation. They built their houfes of timber j as feveral nations of Europe have done until very lately, and as fome do at this day. They did not conceive, that real magnificence confiiled in rearing heaps of (lone, artfully difpofed and clofely cemented ; or that real grandeurreceivedany diminution from the hiunility of its habitation. The firft in worthy accomplilh- ments was generally elefted to the dignity of raa- giftrature, whether royal or dynaftal. In fuch a country durable or fuperb ftruftures could not well take place, as the pofleilion was temporary fo was the building. And fo far did inveterate cuftom prevail among the people, that even after their reception of Chriftianity, they could not be induced to build their churches and monafteries of more

durable

(/) Diflertations, pag. 104, 2d edit.

ROUND TOWERS in IRELAND. 127

durable materials than their own habitations. The exceptions are very few, and the church of St. Eianan, built in the fixth century, is xhcfrft injiance of any ftone-work ereded in this kingdom. They had no cities or towns in the earlier ages. In a country where the inhabitants have but few me- chanical arts; where they draw moft of their neeeC* fanes from the foil they cultivate, and where pre- dous metals are not made equivalents, or lignt of national wealth, there can be few or no cities. In their wars with the Englifh they were at laft obliged to avail themfelves of the arts of their enemies, by eredting caftles and other ftrong holds. This gave rife 10 ftone-buildings in Leinfler, Munfter and Counaught, and foon after in Ulfter. The northern bards inveighed bitterly againft this iimovation, and reprefented it as a fignal that the nation was ripening for foreign fubjeiiion. " Let us, faid one of them, pull down thofe fortreffes of the inlidious enemy, and ceafe working for them, by erefting any of our own ; their llratagems will afluredly ^eft them out of our hands. Our anceftors tnifted entirely to their peifonal valour,and thought ^tfione-boufis of the Galls a difgrace to courage.** Every line of this citation goes to confirm the au- thority of Cambrenfis. Let us hear (/) fir John Davis, a candid and intelligent obferver.

" Though the Irilhry be a nation of great anti- quity, and wanted neither wit nor valour : and though I hey have received the Chriftian faith above 1200 years fince, and were lovers of poetry,

mufick,

ft

(0 Hiftorical Rdations.

128 A DISSERTATION on Tfts

mufick, and all kinds of learning, and weve pc^ feffed of a land in all things neceflaty for die dvi life of man, yet, which is ftrange to be relatec they did never build any houfes of brick or ftom fome few poor religions houfes excepted, befor the reign of king Henry II. thoughtliey were lord of the ifle many hundred years before and finceth conqueft attempted by the Engliih; Albeit, wfae they faw us build caftles upon their borders, tibe have only in imitattion of us, ereded fome few pSc lor the captains of the country. Yet I dare boldl; iay, that never any particular perfon, either befor or fince, did build any (lone or brick houfe for hi private habitation, but fuch as have lately obtaina eftates according to the courfe of the law of Eng land. Neither did any of them in all this timi plant any garden or orchard, fettle villages c towns, or make any provifion for pofterity.—

V There is at this day, fays Sir William Petty i his Political Anatomy of Ireland,no monument • real argument, that when the Irifli were firft iz Yaded by Henry II. they had znyjone houjing ally any money, any foreign trade, nor any lear= ing but the legend of the faints, pfalters, miflkr rituals; nor geometiy, aftronomy, anatomy, aidb teChire, engineery, painting, carving, nor any kic of manufafture, nor the leaft xife of navigation nor the art military.** Do6lor Campbell, in !■ Political(t/)SurveyoftheSouthofIreland,pofitivej afferts, that what is reported by bards and others c flie magnificent palace of Teamor cannot be tru^

ic

(») Letter jth.

ROUND TOWERS in IRELAND 129

for the bill of Taragh itfelf is evidence enough u» prove, that there never could have been a con- fiderable boufe of lime and flone upon it

Having evided the Irifti of any preteniions to

Dorics of lime and ftone, the Oilmen, who pot

I iefied this country for above a century and a half,

appear to have firft introduced them. On their

CQoverfion to Chriftianity in the (w) beginning of

the tenth century, they expreflfed the moil fervent

and lively zeal for it, in founding churches, mona-

Heries, and religious ftru&ures ; and fo confpicuous

and fincere were their lives, that at the Engliih

invafion they filled with reputationboth bifhopricks

and abbies. From the proofs before alledged, it

is evident that our ecclefiaftical buildings were of

^ifood, and therefore not calculated for bells, the

common and ufefiil appendage of fuch ftrudures.

The campanile or belfry in £ngland was diftind^

from the church, as we learn from the Monafticon,

and in Ireland it was the Round Tower. The

foUowii^ coincidences will confirm this opinion.

** The era of the invention of bells, fays {x) Mr.

Bentham, is fcnnewhat obfcure ; fome traces of

them may be difcovered in our monafteries (^)

even in the feventh century. Yet I believfe one

may venture to affert, that fuch large ones as re-

cpiiied diftind buildings for their fupport, do not

aippear to have been in ufe among us until the

"VolII. K tenth

HWam Amiq. p. 132, placM ir ia^ 948, but it was «aTlier.

('] Antiquities of Elf, pag. 29.

(fi On croit, que J'ufage dans nos eglifes D*ont eft pas ^Meur aa fiitcme fieciei il 7 ecoic eublie en 610. ■^ycloptd. article, Qoche.

130 A DISSERTATION on •

tenth ccntuiy, about the middle of which, feveral of our churches furnifhed with t the munfficence of our kings ; Ixit they \ Very common in that age***

About the middle of the eighth centr Stej^en IIL built a {z) tower on the ch St ^eter at Rome, and placed in it thrc iand yet liich towers were not common in and the Weft at a much later period, as from an antient (a) writer, whofe ezpreflip no doubt, but flicy were fep^rate buildii the church and their erefKon viery tmuftial, the end of the ninth century, (A. D. 874 Greek church adopted bells from the Vei their belfry alfo (c) was diftindl from the The Turks who imitated the Chrfllians in their religious prk^ces, did the fame in di tower, and hy it they formed their (tf ) n In the b^inning of the eighth centuiy the J fettled in Spain, and in the neit dge^ tiie 1 rovers, by us called Oftmen and by th tiental people Normans, began* it Be fon to commit depredations and to eftablifii feti on the Freneh and Spanilh crafts as w

(1;) Du Cange^ vpcc Campana.

(a), hx ejus quac^ue fronce, frgpe vahas major! de quadratis et maxmris faxis, mirificam quse viilg iiariiim nancupatnr, ereiic. Du Cange, fupra.

it) Sabellic. Ennead. 9. lib. 1 .

(r) l^Mfiirtifm^fv^MMrd ti» dyuf feUt. Dtt Cang^

(dj Quo magis ifta proclamatto (£»&) longius e: in.tunrini quandam pyramidalem (Mtoar) e upide conftnidamy quo MofcheaB adjacet, afcendttur. • morib. Turcar. pag. 33. This it cxafUy the idc towers.

AOUND TOWERS in IRELAND. 131

Ireland. lu thefe expeditions they muft have feen the Chriitiau and Saracenic bellries, and brought back the ideas of them on their return j why then it may be alked are they not found in England ? England in the feventh century coihmenced an elegant ftyle of building in her principal churches and monaiiic foundations, under the patronage of Wilfrid, Bifcopius and others. 1 hey were follow^cd by feveral other prelates and abbots in proportion to their power and opulence. In the year 935, their tafte was fo much improved, that (^) crofs- ailes and high towers were added to religious edifices. But the round tower, which was a Daniih work) could not find place in England, becaufe the domination of thefe northerns was not eftabliflied there until half a centiury after the intro- duflion of crofs-ailes ; by which time the Anglo- Saxon ftyle was going into difufe, and almoft funk in the Gbthic or Norman. Had the Danes reared their towers before thofe elegant ftruclures, the meaneft peafant would have ridiculed the attempt. Bat in Ireland the cafe was totally different ; our dinrches were of wood, aiid as mean as pofUble ; a bell was wanting (which they cotild not admit) to coUeft people to divine worfhip, who wei:e generally fettled in the vicinity of the church; and it alTo ferved to give an alarm in times of danger. Cambrenfis calls them ecclefiaftical towers, which fixes their appropriation, as the Irifli do (/) Clog- had, or belfries.

Ka That

«

{A Bentham, fopnu

if) Molyneaox on Daaiih Mounts.

I3Z A DISSERTATION on the

That they are Danifti works their rotund figure manifcftly evinces ; this was the (g) form of their camps and fortifications, of their barrows and ftone circles, and of their antient habitations Hill ezifting " It is unqtieftionably certain, fays (/) the learned Dr^ MacpherfoUjthat the oldeft forts on the weftem and northern coafts of Scodand, were erefted by the barbarians of the northern Europe All the Norwegian towers in the Ebndes were of a circular form ; the old fquare caftles there are of a much later date.*^ — ^The opinion of a()t) refpeftable native writer deferves notice : " It is moft certain, that thofe high, roimd, narrow towers of ftone, built cylinder-wife, whereof Cambrenfis fpeaks, were never known of built in Ireland, as indeed no more were any Caftles, houfes, or even churches of fltone, at leaft in the north of Ireland, before the year of Chrift 838, when the heathen Danes pof- fefling a great part of that country, built them in feveral places, to ferve as watch-towers againft the natives. Thoi^h ere long the Danes being ex- pulfed, the Chi^iftian Irifh turned them to another, and much bettef, becaufe an holy ufe, that is, to fteeple-hbufes or Bell-fries j from which latter ufe made of them it is, that ever fince to this prefenty they arc called in Irifh chghteachs, that is, bell- fries or bell-houfes ; cloc or c/og fignifying a beH^ and teach a houfe in that language*'*

In

(|) Caftra autem bsec remper rotunda. Spelman. Tie i^Ifred. pag. 58.

(h) 01. Magn. ct 01. Worm. Mon. Dan, (f) Critical DiflTcrUtions, pag. 293. (i) Wallh's Profpca, pag. 416, 417

ROUND TOWERS in IRELAND. 133

In an antient Irilh naanufcript (fays the (/) hif- torian .of th^ county of Cork) containing fonie an- nate of Munfter, there is mention niade of the Jxnlding the tower of Kineth in this county, about the yesLV 1015, foon after the oplebrated battle of Clantar&. This is too late a period to make it jhe era of their general ereftion by ^t Ijeaft a cen- tury ; but it does not weaken the probability of both Danes and natives continuing the pradlice of building fuch ftj allures until nearly the time of the Nphpan invalion, that is, until an improved taftein architedure took place^ which was about , that time. Mr. Brereton imagines, (m) th^fe tow- ers to be places fix)ni whence the people were cal- led to wbrlhip by the Ipund of fpme wind inilru- fflent This notion arofp from an iron trumpet be- ing found in one of them ; if this circunUl^ncg be lealljr true, it is a new proof of their being Dauifti works, though the inference deduced may be doabtfuL The author laft cited ^flerts, that th^fe towers preceded the ufe pf bells in Ireland ; thi^ is coajethire without the leaft proof j bejk were ufed in the cerenionies (n) of religion as early as the fifth century, and thefe towers were conllrudlr cd about the tenth.

Whether there are any round towers in Denmark pr Norway is not pofitively decided ; we have no

[evidence of accurate inquiries being made after Acni ; for curfdry queftions put to ignorant na- tivcs, or the reports pf fupeyficial obfervers will

never

(/) Smith's HUi of Cork, yd. 2. pag. 409. ,(•) Archaeologia, publillied by tlie Spcitty of Antiqua- ries, Londoiiy toL a. pag. 80.

(iO Sec eke aiitbors cited b^ Du Cas^e» voce Campana.

134 A DISSERTATION on th»

never determine the point. Mr. Pennant (o) tcUs as, that while he lay in the found of Jona in the Bfir brides, two gentlemen from theifle of Mull, and who had poffeffions there, feemed to know nothipf of that ailoniihing curiofity, the Bafaltic ifle -^ Staffa. If fuch was the want of attention and formation in perfons of property, and to fo extra^ — . ordinary a rarity in their vicinity, we may wekH fuppofe the roimd towers, if any there be abroad, are as indifferently paffcd over. Nor is it kfs rts markable, that until a mercurial (p) traveller enu- merated thoCe in this kingdom, they had been before but flighdy noticed by our hiftorians, topo- graphers and antiquaries, though more than fort]^ of them, and thofe well preferved, ftill remain. Tho fame may be faid of the Swedifh antiquity which were but imperfedly known imtil Dahl- berg lately exhibited many of them in his Suedl Hodierna et Antiqua.

But the late reception of C3iriftianity will v^iy well account lor the want of round tawer^ 01 other antient monuments of religion, in northciDi FAiropc. The Normans, Danes, Swedes and thor neighbours did not embrace (y) the doclrine rf redemption until the twelfth century. At that time the UK^refou them nations were tolerably civilized; fumptuous edifices dedicated to facred ufes, were conuuon among thcnt. theantient beingmouldered into ruiUvS or funk into oblivion j even had th^

furvive^f

u\ V^^Nriav Vp:^ Hid, Eccki. p. 444— 501— Soa.

iurvivedy no one would dream of makiag them modeb of imitation.

After all^ tbefe llrudlures might have been pe-

ouliar to Ireland, and Cambrenfis intimates as

much when he (ays, they were built pat no more, '

after the £aihion of the country. The circular

l^orwcgian towers^ mentioned above by Dr.

IMacj^erfon, might have fuggefted the idea of

them, and their appropriation to religious purpofes

arofe from the Itatc of Chriftianity then in this

fingdom. When once they were adopted^ they

fooa were multiplied.

Mr. Pennant, fpeaking of the Scottifti roun4 towers, lays they could not be intended fcr bel- fries, becaufe they are placed near the fteeples of churches, in^tely more commodious for th^t ^ This fui^pofes the fteeples and round towers to beeoeval, which is nos the cafe ; our anceftors, whatever may be thought of them at this day, vere incapable of committing fuch a folecifm in ^rchitcflure. Though the tower was ufed as a belfry, yet this by no means fuperceded the ne* ceflity of fteeples on ftone-buildings of later con- ftniflion ; fuch ftrudures, being generally in the ionn of a crois, had a fteeple raifed on its interr fefljpn. Thus in the cemetery of the cathedral of St Canice, Kilkenny, there is a beautiful roun^ lower, yet the fymmetry of the cathedral, which IS Gothic, required a fteeple, and it has one. Wherever we find a round tower, we may be cer- tain the church contiguous to it is of early anti- ouity, and not later than the eleventh century.

Alearned

13^ A DISSERTATION on tr<

A learned (r) ^dquf ry isof ppinkmy that thefe towers were creded by the Phenidans or Cirtha— ginians in thdr trading voyages hither ; fomc paC^ iages in antient authors feems to count^oance this& cohje6hire. Diodiorus Sicoius, (s) difcourfing of th^ Hyperboreans who inhabited in ifland opppfit^ tfc Celtic region, fays : *f Tte trees there Ix^ar liruit twice every year. The fabulpus chranicL^ records, that Latona was born in that cpuntr}^ ; hencethe' inhabitants adore Apolloi wfiofepraifc they are continually chanting. In the iflels a nt ble foreft, dedicated to this deity, a temple alio of aj^A^row/ figure filled with prefents, and a cit:^ iacred to the fame God ; the greateft part of the people are miificians, they play on the harp' ii^ his temple, and fing *hymns to his praife."

This defcription is plainly the work of fimcy^ J the author is not to "Be ceiifured, when he himfel* intimates a fufpicion of his authority.

NeitheraretheythePyratheiaofthePerfians, ^ notion lately taken up oh the authority^ of M^i*- Hanway (/), who in his travels into Perfia, fouix^ rpimd towers in the coimtry of the Gaurs, or war- fiiippers of fire. Mr. Hanway barely mentions their eidftence without reafoning on, or deducing any inference from it. In the year 634, the Sara^ cens conquered Perfia, and placed on its throne a monarch of their own. * Their zeal in etlablifliing itxeir religion, wherever their arms extended, to

^ • the

•

(r) Lieut. Col. yaUancey. Colle^nea, No. 2. pag. 2o(.

(i) Lib. 2. pig. 91. '

(i) Travels into Perfia, part 2. chap. 43.

ROUND TOWERS ih IRELAND. 137

theqcdufionof all others is fiilly (u) afcertained,

and thefe towers are remains dr their JVCnarets. ^t

is very foreign from the Turkifh or Mahometan

religion to fuffer monuments of heterodoxy to

remain, as the GhiiiHan temples have fadly expe^

rienced ; much lefs would they fhow marks of

^veur to a contemptible fed. But this opinion is

.grotmdlefs for another reafon, which is, that the

Oaurs jio npt, worfhip fire, as Tavemier aflerts;

tlic rcfped they have for that element is only com-

xnemorative of fome fervices, it is fuppofed to have

done thpir prophet.

But an examination of the antient Pyrathe'ia will

let this matter in the deareft light. " Strabo (w)

informs us, that they were indofiires of great com-

^afs ; in the middle were altars, and on them the

3Vf agi preferved mqch alhes and a perpetual fire.*'

Can we froni thefe words conclude that they were

lauildings of lime and (lone, and of the altitude of

our round towers ? As to their being Phenician

works, we know thefe people derived much of

t^eir religion from {x) Egypt ; it is therefore to be

{^fumed, that the temples refembled thofe of the

latter, which confided of four (y) parts, and of

confiderable extent, and not refembling, jxx any

inftance, our round towers, as the learned reader

will perceive by recurring to the paflage dted in

(he m;^gin.

The

(tt) Modern Univerfal Hiftory, pafliin. (*w) Lib. 17.

(x) Kircher. Oedip. ^gyptiac. tora. i . pag. 246. (j) AtUifur%fi T\^rf'vXmi6f% Tl^ifm^n xmio N««f. Strab. lib. IJt pag. 805,

128 ^ DISSERTATION on the

The opi^on acquiefc^ in for fpme years^ is that q£ the late reven^ud dean Richardfon^ and fince adopted and imprpved by Mr. Harris, in his edition of Sir Jame^ W^re s antiquities. This fuppofcs our tpwerjs tq be the refidence of an^choritp monks, ^nd imitations of tb? eailern pillars; and is founded qp tb? account Evagrius gives of Simeon Stylites, ^hicb, to ^yoifi ambiguity, it may be proper to (^) ^xtrad : ** The fabrick of Simeon's churcfiT reprcfents the fprm df a crofs, beautified "with por- ticoes of four fides; oppofite thefe are placed pil- lars, curioufly made of polifhed flone, whereon the rqpf is graceftilly raifed to an height. In the midft of thi?fe porticoes |s an open court^, wrqught with much ait, in lyhi'ch cpiirt ftands the ^tl/ar, forty cii^its higrbf wherepn that incarnate angel upon eartl^ (Sipieon) led a celeftial life." It muft require a wjLTtn ima^nation to point out the fimilarity bet^^^eeu this pillar aji^d pur tower. The one was folid, the othc^r |ioUow ; the one was fquare, and the other circular.

The arfti incluforii ergaftulum (a) of Harri, was a monaftic cell or hermitage. Raderus, on whom he much depends, fays, {b) " The houfe of the reclufe ought to be of flone ; the length and breadth twelve feet ; with three windows, one

facing

(2) Lib. 1. cap. 14. Not having ihc original ^onyenicnt, I it'^lce ufc of Hanmcr*s tranflation*.

(a) Ware's Antiquities, pag. 134.

(^) Inclufa, id eft, dpcnus Incluli, debet efle lapidea. Ion- gitiido et latitudo in 1 2 pedes abeat ; tres feneftras, unam C( ntra chorum, per quaip corpus Chrifti accipiat ; alteram iQ o^ppfito, per qiiam viftum recipiat ; tcrtiani undc lucen) h; beat, q irt ftirper debet efleclaufa vitro vd cprnu. Rader; in Bav.ir. 8and.

ROUND X9,^EI^ i^ IREJLANP. iw

ikcing the choir, through wliichheiwy rfc^iv^the body oi Chriilj the other oppofit?, through which food is conveyed to him ; and the third % the ad- naiffion of li^ht ; the latter to be always covered wth glafs or horn**. Tlus ^a^ was very differed from our round tower. Mr. Harris fpeaking of EoDchad 0*Brien, abbot of Clonmacnois, whq fliDt hitnfelf up in one of thefe cells, fays : " I wll x^ot take upon me to affirm, tliat it was in one of thefe towers at Clonmacnois he was incloied.'* —Here was a fine opportunity of proving his hy- pothefis was it capable of it. Mr. Harris fhould have ihown from hiftory,or other monuments, that thefe ipund towers were the receptacles of anacho- rites, and not to have begged the queftion; but not a word of this is to be found in any record, ci4cr m print or manufcript ; all he is able to pro- duce is the names of twenty five afcetics, in the fpace of 503 years. The annals of Ulfter and of the four matters, from whence he takes them, only mention; — •"Kellachanachoretafbruit, A. D. 828. - Conlach anachoreta floruit, A. D. 862, &c." thb furelyhath no reference to, nor doth it prove them to have been inhabitants of the roimd towers. Thus deftitute of every foundation, it is aftoniflw ing how implicitly and unrefervedly this reverie hath been embraced. What Lucretius obferves of the wonders of nature is as appjlicable to lite* rary paradox^ {c) : Nil adeo magnum, nee tam mif abilc quicqu'am Principb, c^uod non minuant mirarier omnes Paulatim.

Wc

(f) Lib. 2. lin. 102^.

140 A DISSERTATION on the

Wc arc told by Mr. Smith {d) that he once be- lieved thofetowers to be the retreats of anachorites; but from new information, derived from an Iriih xnanufcript, he now thinks they were places of penance. The penitent moimted on the higheft lofty performed there a probation of fome days; in like manner he proceeded to the next ftage^ and fo downwards until he finifhed his religious couife, when he was received at the door of the tower, (which faced the weftern door of the church) by the clergy and people. And ho credits this notion, as it coincides with the general pofition of thedoorsof thefe towers, which are always to the'eaft; but the pofition is pofitivcly otherwife, as will prefendy be leen in thole of Abernethy and Brechin, nor is any general rule obferved in placing the doors, as he muft have known from examining many of them in the counties he defcribes. It was therefore very difingenuous to facrifice his veracity in fupport of a groundlef^ hypothefis, and an anonymous manur fcript, efpecially as he himfelf fupplies the ftrong- eft proof of their original defignation in (^) another work, where he remarks, that the round tower of Ardmore had be^n ufed for a belfry, there being towards {he top not only four windows to let out the foimd, but alfo three pieces of oak, ftill r^m^in- ing, on which the bell was hung. And Mr. Pen-* nant informs us, the tower <{ Brechin is ufed for a belfry; as is that of Rofcrea. This evidence fcems decifivc ; it is truth confirmed by immemo- rial ufage, and triumphing over learned whims.

The

(d) Hiftory of the cpunty of Cork, vo|. 2. pag. 407. (V) Hiftory pf ^hc county of W^tcrford, p»g. 71 .

UND TOWERS in IRELAND. 141

profound filence of archbiihop Uflier axxt ::h. Roth, Ward, Colgan, O'Flaherty and >r, men, who have fuccefsfuUy elucidated ndquities, is a negative argument agaioft merous fjrftems before noticed, not ealily nfweied*

li the utmoft diffidence of himfelf and pro- -efpeA for the learned, the writer of thefe does not think the aggregate of his io- is incontrovcrdble, nor the foludbn of this t problem perfeflly fatisfadory ; he cfftis s the refult of much inquiry, and the c6]i-

of his own mind on this obfcure fubjed.

following is a lift of fuch round towers md as have come within the author's know- it is much larger than any hitherto exhi- and yet he £9 convinced there are many

lower.	Dublin,
n*	Dyfart,
^	Ferbane; two.
ore.	Fertagh,
h.	Glendaloch; two.
seifle,	Kells,
11,	Kilcullen,
dermot.	Kildare,
lalkin.	Kilkenny,
lacnois.	KiUala,
e.	Kilmacduagh,
lifh.	Eilree,
Patrick,	Lulk,
bee.	Mahera,
lane.	Monafterboice,
	Kewcaftle,

»4« A ^ts'SEltfATiON bk T-m

Kcwcaftlc, iicfar F6xfbi-^ Sligo; two, Otiglitcraitf, Swortb,

R^feniflfe, Timafaoe/

R«t6o, l*dll6hcrm,

ilofcrdii Turlogh,

Scattery, WefrCarbiHy.

StoflfflaBai^^DD^rlf m the fimatkmof Ire iS to tbe mVations arid fettlcnicht of Ac Oft Wc aocordixigly find t«rp towers thferfe, of ^ *fr. GbrdcMi gives (f) the follbWihjgf defctxij* ~a|)j^ibtble, 1*ith little variatibii, to dlcrfe in ilHnd.

*^ I Wciit cTiifeffl fe^s he, to Abernethy, ^i»iiftit c^tal of thePi^^Qn^ fi^P^i tbft^if I could fihdariyi^maiiis^ ¥ias fi^lAbiii- bdt cduM difcdver xioSiing & aSStcTyKoHBW |imir tnffibut a ftair^afe; f6 when I entered within and looked upward, lie fcarce forbear ima^mhg myfelf at the bdttoih deep draw-well. It h^ only one door or ^sdtri facing thfe'^OTfli, ibmcwhat above the bafii», height of which is eight foot and a half, kfiK breadffiflroWi^Siri to jam, two and a half, toifc the top are four wiidbws, which havefeiVed'fii admiflion of l^t; theyare equidiftant,and fivei nine inches in hSight, and two foot two inch< breadth, and ea6h is iupported by two finall pit At the bottom afc t^o rows of ftoties, prOje! from beneaffi, i^Bich ferved for a bafis or pedi The whole heightof the pillar is feventy-five and confiftsof fixty-foiir rows, or regular cotlri hewnftonc. The extternal circumference at the

(/)^K&Lerar« Septentrional, pag. 164.

ROUND TOWERS in IRELAND. 143

is forty^ight foot, but diminifhcs fomewhat to- wards the top, and the ihicknefs of the wall is three foot and a half. This is by the inhabitants beneabouts called the round fteeplc of Abernethy, and is fuppofed to be the only remains of Pidlifh work in thefe parts.*'

Of another tower he thus fpeaks : " In my

journey northward, I found a fteeple at Brechin^

di&ring little in ihape from that at Abernethy,

only it was larger and covered at the top ; for its

height from the bafe to the cornice is eighty-five

foot, and from thence to the vane fifteen, in all

one hundred ; it confifts of fixty regular courfes of

flone ; the external circumference thereof is forty-

feven foot, and the thicknefs of the wall three foot

eight mches. However this has no pedeftal like the

other, but feems to fhoot out of the ground like a

tree ; it has a door fronting the fouth ; the height

and breadth of w^iich differ little from Abernethy ;

only upon it are evidences fufficient to demonftrate

that it was a Chriftian work, for over the top of the

door is the figure of our Saviour on the crofs, with

two little images or ftatues towards the middle.

** This fteeple has a low fpiral roof of ftone^ with three or four windows above the cornice, and 00 the top thereof is placed a vane. It has no ftair- cafe within, any more than the other, but the in- habitants of both towns afcend to the top by lad- <fcrs. The vulgar notion of thefe is, that they are K&ifti, and I fhould eafily have refted in that opi- luon, had I not been fince that time affured, that fomc of the like monuments are to be feen in Ire ^and, where the Pidls never were fettled.*'

MEMOIRS

M E M O I R S

OF

J> UNAMASE

AND

SHEAN CASTLE,

IM THB

Q^UEEN's COUNTY.

Vox.II.

i

k-

a >T T

O Ivi

■; ()

'- ^ A M A li u a

•i :

-"^ ^T T 3 A O

^'

r <* r

.'^ .ii xT i

a " i- i,- 1

.r r 14 rj o .. ,-,4^. a y ^^.

a

.'? . \k} /

MEMOIRS

O F

DUNAMASE

AN D

SHEAN CASTLE,

IN the earlier ages of ibdety, the wants of mankind and their provocations to injuries |eem to have been few ; and yet ambition and jcaloufy teo frequently called forth the ferodty of ^inuined nature and the exertions of brutal force ; ^rbed the lavage inhabitant8 of the wildemels^ ^ compelled them to feek fecurity on {a) emi- i^^esy and in places of difficult accefs ; to inclofe ^ area with a ditch ; or form an abatis of trees* ^veniefice and emergency pointed out thefe diSbrent modes of defence, and this kingdom is fiill of tbofe ancient fortrei£bs« Separated from the ^aia of neighbouring hills, and precipitous on all fides^ excq>t to the fouth-weft, Dunamafe offered ^ &fe afylum to the iirft poffeflbr : and if any

L 2 reliance

(')See Cziar's accowt of thofc amticnt ?orts» and Plac

148 MEMOIRS OF

reliance is to be placed on its {b) name, it wa place of i^rength in the remoteft times.

Dun na maes in Celtic is— The Fort of t Plain. — ^The plain is the Great-Heath of Ma borough, lying to the north-eaft of the Dun; a 1 of confiderable extent. Ptolemy makes Duni an inland Irifh town, but {o) Cambden places it TJlfter, and fays it is Downpatrick. Ware believes the Britifh antiquary hath affigned it improper lituation, which fuppofition of War Harris doth not contradict. But the latter writ are certainly miftaken ;* for Dunamafe, from i narrownefs of its circumference, never could o tain but a few cabbin«, and in records it is c ftantly mentioned as a fortrefs; whereas Do\ patrick, as Cambden rightly obferves, was a vi old town, an