Crobanes, an old Irish gentleman, our common friend, who kept up the hospitality of his ancestors, and fhewed how they lived, when Cormac Mac Cuillenan, the Generous, (from Ireland had. Fitzgerald, the firft knight of Glin, was fo made by the immortal Briem Boiroimhe, who fell in the bloody fight, A. D. 1239, that was fought by him with Maolmarda king of Leinster, who joined with the Danes. The king of Ireland and the king of Leinfter flew each other; and with Brien Boiroimhe fet the glory of Ireland. The ftates from this time began to decay; and Roderick O Connor, who came to the crown, A. D. 1168, was the last king of Ireland. Our Henry the Second got the kingdom, A. D. 1172, by two means; one of which was a grant the Pope made of it to him, who was allowed by the natives to be fupreme Lord of the island in temporals, and the nobility had by commiffion refigned it to him, after the death of Brien Boiroimhe: -The other mean, and what effectually did the work, was the king of Leinster's joining with Strangwell, who was at the head of the English forces, and had married that king's daughter. An old chronicle fays, fhe was the most beautiful woman upon earth of her time, and very learned: but inferior nevertheless in beauty and learning to the fix princeffes we read of in the Pfalter of Tarah, who were fair beyond all mortals that ever lived, and wonderful in the extent of their knowledge; to wit, The princess Mac Diarmuid. The (from whofe house he defcended) was king of Munfter, and Archbishop of Cafbel, in the year 913 (23.) There was no end of eating and drinking there, and the famous Downe Falvey The princefs O Heyn. The princefs O Flaherty. e year Thefe fix were Druideffes, fays the Pfalter of Tarah. By the way, reader, let me tell you, that from this fame Pfalter of Tarah, I writ out one of the fineft and most improving love-ftories that ever I read. It is called The adventure of Terlah Mac Shain, and the beautiful Gara O Mulduin; which happened in the reign of Cormac Ulfada, king of Ireland, in the of falvation 213, that Faon Maccumbail, commonly called Fian Maccul, the mighty champion, beat the Pics, and brought off, among other prisoners, the beautiful Ciarnuit, (daughter to the king of the Picts) whom Cormac Ulfada took for his concubine. This story is likewife more shortly told in the red book of Mac Eogane, a very valuable old Irish manufcript: and from both those books I will give my reader the best part of this adventure as foon as I can see a proper place to bring it in. (23) This Mac Cuillenan writ the famous pfalter of Cafhel, a very extraordinary and valuable book, which he compofed from antient poems of the bards, who thus writ their history, and from venerable records, as this king and prelate declares in his will. The claufe is this-My pfalter, which preferves the antient records and monuments of my native country, which are tranfcribed with great fidelity, I leave to Ronal Cashel, to be preferved to aftertimes and ages yet Falvey played on the harp. For a day and a night we fat to it by candle-light, without fhirts or cloaths on; naked, excepting that we had our breeches and fhoes and stockings yet to come. -There is another remarkable claufe in this great man's will, to wit;- -My foul for mercy I commit to heaven; my body leave to duft and rottenness. There is not a word of any faint in it; and of confequence, there was no faint-worship then in Ireland.. Cormac writ his will the day before he fought the bloody battle of Maghailbe with the king of Leinfter and therein fell. It begins in this manner : Summon'd away by death, which I perceive: I do bequeath, &c. My coat of mail of bright and polish'd feel As a reward, &c. My golden vestment for moft facred ufe,. ings on; and I drank fo much burgundy in that time, that the fweat ran of a red colour down my body; and my senses were fo difordered, that when we agreed to ride out Now from this antique piece verbally tranflated, I think it is evident, that the kings of the four provinces of Ireland were not fuch poor and ignorant chiefs as they are generally imagined to be; and of confequence, that one of the four to whom the other three did homage, and who was therefore called the king of Ireland, was always a potent prince, and could do great matters when they were all united. This confideration, I fancy, (and the address let me add of Anfelm, archbishop of Canterbury, and of Lanfranc, archbishop of the fame fee, to Mortogh O Brien, king of Ireland, and Terlah O Brien, king of Ireland, Moriardacho Gloriofo and Terdeluacho Magnifico, To the most magnificent Terlagh O Brien, king of Ireland, our benediction, &c. as you may read them at large in Uber's Primordia) ought to give fome credit to Fluberty's Ogygia, Keating's Hiftory, and Mac Cur tius' Annals; which thofe writers really took from very ancient records, and principally from the very valuable manufcripts, called the Pfalters of Cabel and Tarah. What the Pfalter of Cafhel was I have told you, reader; and as to the Pfalter of Tarah, the hiftory of it is this. On a tract of land called Tarah, that was taken * These letters were written by the English archbishops to the Irish kings, Turlogh and Murtagh, in the years 1098 and 1110. out for a couple of hours to take a little air, I leaped my horfe into a dreadful quarry, and in the defcent was thrown into a large deep water that was in a part of the frightful bottom, and by that means faved my life. When I came above water, I fwam very eafily out of the pit, and walked up the low fide of the quarry as fober as if I had not drank a glafs. This is a fact, whatever the critics may fay of the thing. All I can fay to it is, my hour was not come. 1725. June 11. The journey continued. 49. Having dined, and shot a bustard that weighed forty pounds, I went on again, the courfe north-weft for half a mile, and then, to my aftonishment, it trended to the fouth for more than an hour; taken from the province of Leinster, and added to the county of Meath, ftood the largest of the four vaft palaces of the kings of Ireland, and at that grand fabric there was a triennial meeting of the ftates of the kingdom, called the royal affembly of Tarah. There they enacted laws, examined the antient chronicles and records, and purged them from all falfe and fpurious relations, fettled genealogies, and confidered noble exploits. All the things that received the affembly's approbation were registered, and tranfcribed into the royal records, and they called this journal the Pfalter of Tarah: C$6 which |